python - matplotlib string to dates

Question

Hi I am trying to convert a list of dates as strings to an x axis in matplotlib and I can't seem to get it to come out right.

dates =  ['2014-05-06', '2014-05-07', '2014-05-08', '2014-05-09', '2014-05-10', '2014-05-11', '2014-05-12', '2014-05-13']

import matplotlib
from matplotlib import pyplot
from matplotlib import dates

converted_dates = matplotlib.dates.datestr2num(dates)
x_axis = (converted_dates)

y_axis = range(0,8)
pyplot.plot( x_axis, y_axis, '-' )
pyplot.show()

This brings back 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 on the x axis on the chart, what am I missing. I would like this to display 2014-05-06 etc

Answer 1

Is this the goal? (Threw in rotation because it almost always comes up, with dates.)

datelist =  ['2014-05-06', '2014-05-07', '2014-05-08', '2014-05-09', '2014-05-10',    '2014-05-11', '2014-05-12', '2014-05-13']

import matplotlib
from matplotlib import pyplot
from matplotlib import dates
import datetime

converted_dates = list(map(datetime.datetime.strptime, datelist, len(datelist)*['%Y-%m-%d']))
x_axis = converted_dates
formatter = dates.DateFormatter('%Y-%m-%d')


y_axis = range(0,8)
pyplot.plot( x_axis, y_axis, '-' )
ax = pyplot.gcf().axes[0] 
ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter(formatter)
pyplot.gcf().autofmt_xdate(rotation=25)
pyplot.show()