matplotlib format timestamp axis

Manipulate the major formatter to show the dates, and the minor formatter to show the time only

import numpy as np

import matplotlib.dates as dates

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt 

fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(12, 4))

idx = pd.date_range('2018-01-07', '2018-01-09', freq='10min')

idx = np.arange('2018-01-07T00', '2018-01-09T02', 10, dtype='datetime64[m]')

y = np.sin(np.arange(idx.shape[0]) / 0.01)

plt.plot(idx, y)

ax.xaxis.set_minor_locator(dates.HourLocator(interval=4))   

ax.xaxis.set_minor_formatter(dates.DateFormatter('%H:%M')) 

ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(dates.DayLocator(interval=1))    

ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter(dates.DateFormatter('\n%Y-%m-%d'))  #the \n move major to the second line of label

plt.show()