# Add "+" sign for positive values in Declination

**URL:** <https://community.openastronomy.org/t/add-sign-for-positive-values-in-declination/1105>\
**Category:** Astropy\
**Tags:** astropy, question\
**Created:** [September 6, 2024, 4:45pm UTC](https://community.openastronomy.org/t/add-sign-for-positive-values-in-declination/1105 "2024-09-06T16:45:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![neowise](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.openastronomy.org/neowise/32/553_2.png) [@neowise](https://community.openastronomy.org/u/neowise)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2024, 4:45pm UTC](https://community.openastronomy.org/t/add-sign-for-positive-values-in-declination/1105/1 "2024-09-06T16:45:11Z")

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I wish to add the plus sign (“+”) for the positive values in the Declination axis (Y). I tried a lot of solutions. The method `set_major_formatter` seems very limited, it only allows a small usecase. It’s crazy because it’s a very simple action in terms of programming, however I’m not able to achieve this through the built-in functions that Astropy has. That’s why I’m asking for your help.

Values lower than 0 already have the “-” sign. I’m preparing sky charts for all public usage, so adding the “+” sign would be helpful for the people.

This is my line of code:

```python
ax.coords[1].set_major_formatter('d')

```

I tried `matplotlib.ticker`. I tried to understand the `CoordinatesHelper` class. What can I do then?

Thanks in advance!

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**Author:** ![ayshih](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.openastronomy.org/ayshih/32/84_2.png) [@ayshih](https://community.openastronomy.org/u/ayshih)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 12:57pm UTC](https://community.openastronomy.org/t/add-sign-for-positive-values-in-declination/1105/2 "2024-09-10T12:57:44Z")

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There isn’t already a way to do what you want, so I have created a PR for this functionality: [WCSAxes: Enable specifying that tick labels always include the sign by ayshih · Pull Request #16985 · astropy/astropy · GitHub](https://github.com/astropy/astropy/pull/16985)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![neowise](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.openastronomy.org/neowise/32/553_2.png) [@neowise](https://community.openastronomy.org/u/neowise)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2024, 9:05pm UTC](https://community.openastronomy.org/t/add-sign-for-positive-values-in-declination/1105/3 "2024-09-10T21:05:45Z")

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Thanks a lot for making a PR. It’s a very good improvement for Astropy!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ayshih](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/community.openastronomy.org/ayshih/32/84_2.png) [@ayshih](https://community.openastronomy.org/u/ayshih)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2024, 2:04pm UTC](https://community.openastronomy.org/t/add-sign-for-positive-values-in-declination/1105/4 "2024-09-11T14:04:28Z")

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The PR has been merged, so the functionality should be available in the next major release of `astropy`.