pgfplots: Use \times symbol for scientific notation in plot axes

Question

When creating a plot like this one

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[
        scaled y ticks=false,
        yticklabel style={
            /pgf/number format/.cd,
            sci,
            sci generic={mantissa sep=\times,exponent={10^{#1}}}
            }
        ]
        \addplot coordinates {
            (1, 972817.3879)
            (2, 1436186.725)
        };
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

I'm trying to use scientific notation in the y axis with \times as the mantissa separator instead of the default \cdot. The exponent is not showing up, though. I looked at Section 4.12.1 in the pgfplots manual and Section 2.7 in the pgfplotstable manual and followed the examples there, but there were no examples using this particular case with yticklabel.

How do I fix this?

The plot may be viewed here:

Answer 1

This seems to work:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\pgfkeys{/pgf/number format/.cd,
sci,
sci generic={mantissa sep=\times,exponent={10^{#1}}}}
    \begin{axis}[
        scaled y ticks=false,
        xticklabel style={/pgf/number format/.cd,fixed},
        ]
        \addplot coordinates {
            (1, 972817.3879)
            (2, 1436186.725)
        };
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Answer 2

You can see the explanation for the tick scale binop option in page 233 of the pgplots manual.

Try the following code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[
        scaled y ticks=false,
        yticklabel style={
            /pgf/number format/.cd,
            sci,
            sci generic={mantissa sep=\times,exponent={10^{#1}}} 
            },
        tick scale binop={\textbackslash times} % Change \cdot to \times as mantissa separator
        ]
        \addplot coordinates {
            (1, 972817.3879)
            (2, 1436186.725)
        };
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Output

Edit

Gonzalo Medina already has posted a workaround regarding the missing exponents. Just in case it is an option not to write the mantissa the way you did, you can have the following option:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[tick scale binop=\times,
        ]
        \addplot coordinates {
            (1, 972817.3879)
            (2, 1436186.725)
        };
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Answer 3

####?

We need more #! Four to be exact: ####1.

Code

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[
        scaled y ticks=false,
        yticklabel style={
            /pgf/number format/.cd,
            sci,
            sci generic={mantissa sep=\times,exponent=10^{####1}}
            }
        ]
        \addplot coordinates {
            (1, 972817.3879)
            (2, 1436186.725)
        };
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Using directly \pgfmathprintnumber

You can use the style yticklabel and its internal \tick macro directly with \pgfmathprintnumber. The superscript is—as you already know—the first parameter, but as nesting goes we need the second level, therefore: ##1.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[
      scaled y ticks=false,
      yticklabel={
        \pgfmathprintnumber[
          sci,
          sci generic={
            mantissa sep=\times,
            exponent={10^{##1}}
          }
        ]{\tick}
      }
    ]
        \addplot coordinates {
            (1, 972817.3879)
            (2, 1436186.725)
        };
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Output