changing default x range in histogram matplotlib

Question

I would like to change the default x range for the histogram plot. The range of the data is from 7 to 12. However, by default the histogram starts right at 7 and ends at 13. I want it to start at 6.5 and end at 12.5. However, the ticks should go from 7 to 12.How do I do it?

import asciitable 
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.mlab as mlab
import pylab
from pylab import xticks

data = asciitable.read(file)
hmag = data['col8']
visits = data['col14']
origin = data['col13']


n, bins, patches = plt.hist(hmag, 30, facecolor='gray', align='mid')
xticks(range(7,13))
pylab.rc("axes", linewidth=8.0)
pylab.rc("lines", markeredgewidth=2.0) 
plt.xlabel('H mag', fontsize=14)
plt.ylabel('# of targets', fontsize=14)
pylab.xticks(fontsize=15)
pylab.yticks(fontsize=15)
plt.grid(True)
plt.savefig('hmag_histogram.eps', facecolor='w', edgecolor='w', format='eps')
plt.show()

Answer 1

plt.hist(hmag, 30, range=[6.5, 12.5], facecolor='gray', align='mid')