move x axis labels on a heatmap to the top

Is it possible to move the x axis label on a heatmap (the heatmap function introduced in version R2017a) to the top of the heatmap? I have tried the following:

    ax = gca;
    ax.XAxisLocation = 'top';

but in response the error message is "Unrecognized property 'XAxisLocation' for class 'matlab.graphics.chart.HeatmapChart'."

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

You can cheat.

axp = struct(ax);       %you will get a warning
axp.Axes.XAxisLocation = 'top';

The Axes property is not normally visible, but you can get to it with struct()

[HW]

Thanks very much. I had previously tried a variation of that, but I applied the struct function to the handle of the image itself, not the axis. Your solution worked.

[Luna]

You made my day today! +1 :)

[Victor Arshavskiy]

O.M.G., this is really great!!!

Answer 2

[Benjamin Kraus]

If you want to do this using documented approaches, you can use a tiledlayout to position an axes below the heatmap, and the manipulate the tick labels on that axes instead.

t = tiledlayout(1,1);
ax = axes(t);

% Create the heatmap. Specifying the OuterPosition tells the heatmap not to
% replace/delete the axes, but the position of the heatmap will be driven
% by the tiledlayout, so the actual value of OuterPosition doesn't matter.
x = ["Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun"];
y = ["Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"];
h = heatmap(t, x, y, magic(6), 'OuterPosition', [0 0 1 1]);

% Create a categorical vector with the same elements as the heatmap's tick
% labels:
cx = categorical(x, x);
cy = categorical(y, y);

% Plot categorical data into the axes.
plot(ax, cx, cy)

% Change the YDir of the axes to match the heatmap.
ax.YDir = 'reverse';

% Move the XAxisLocation
ax.XAxisLocation = 'top';

% Turn off the y-tick labels on the axes.
yticklabels(ax,[]);

% Optionally, turn off the x-tick labels on the heatmap.
h.XDisplayLabels = repmat("", size(h.XDisplayLabels));

[Walter Roberson]

This trick should go in one of the blogs !