# How to express ticks in scientific form? [duplicate]

I want to express the ticks in scientific form. I tried two ways as following

ListLogPlot[Table[{x, 10^x}, {x, -1, 1}], Ticks -> {Automatic, {10^-1, 10^0, 10^1}}]

ListLogPlot[Table[{x, 10^x}, {x, -1, 1}],
Ticks -> {Automatic, ScientificForm[{10^-1, 10^0, 10^1}]}]


but they just could not work as you can see; the latter even is wrong.

Why & how?

Edit by @belisarius

Scientific Notation is usually understood as ${1.\times 10^{-2}}$, however the OP wants just ${10^{-2}}$. Solutions for both cases can be found in the answers below.

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## marked as duplicate by Mr.Wizard♦Feb 18 at 22:25

I believe this is a duplicate but as my vote is binding I shall hold it for the time being: mathematica.stackexchange.com/q/5369/121 –  Mr.Wizard Aug 17 '12 at 19:22
@Mr.Wizard , thanks! I should ever find that link before; however i failed to use proper key words. Anyway, i think the command Superscript is the simplest way to fulfill my requirement. –  Mathieu Aug 18 '12 at 16:59

Here's one possibility. In this case, Superscript provides the needed format of exponents but Table helps in formatting Ticks over sets of values.

ListLogPlot[Table[PartitionsQ[n], {n, 50}],
Ticks -> {Automatic, Table[{10^k, Superscript[10, k]}, {k, -2, 5}]},
PlotRange -> {Automatic, {1/1000, 10^5}}]


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So far i found the Superscript is the easiest way to realize the 10^n format, as long as one notice the code need to be the form: {position, label} as Verde also pointed out. Thank you for your answer! –  Mathieu Aug 18 '12 at 17:06
Thanks. Sometimes a simple approach will do the job. –  David Carraher Aug 18 '12 at 17:30

You need the second form for the ticks {position, label}.

As in

ListLogPlot[#, Ticks -> {Automatic, {#, ScientificForm@#} & /@ #}] &@Array[10.^# &, 10]


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wow, ur code is very simple.It seems that the decimal point is crucial. If using Array[10^# &, 10], it goes back to ordinary form. Actually here i want the form like 10^1, 10^2,... without "1.". –  Mathieu Aug 18 '12 at 5:18

I would suggest using the CustomTicks package. After loading the package, you do:

ListPlot[Table[{x, Log10[10^x]}, {x, -1, 1, .1}], Ticks -> {Automatic, LogTicks}]


You can also specify to use CustomTicks's linear ticks:

ListPlot[Table[{x,Log10[10^x]},{x,-1,1,.1}],Ticks->{LinTicks,LogTicks}]


which gives a slightly different result:

There are many options in this package to modify the ticks style, spacing, etc. See the complete user's guide.

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That's powerful! I guess there would be one day i use that package for beautiful presentation. –  Mathieu Aug 18 '12 at 17:01