Pgfplots: picture moves with sample size!

Question

I'm quite new to pgfplots and I must be doing something wrong. I'm plotting a piecewise function using the following code:

\documentclass{amsbook}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.8}

\begin{document}

\newcommand{\DELTA}{.3}
\pgfmathdeclarefunction{fdelta}{1}{%
    \pgfmathparse{%
      and(#1 >= 1-\DELTA/2, #1 <= 1+\DELTA/2) * (1 - 2 * abs(#1 - 1) / \DELTA)
    }
 }

\begin{tikzpicture}
  \begin{axis}[
      title={$f_{\delta}(x)$},
      xmin=0, xmax=2,
      xtick={0, .85, 1.15, 2},
      xticklabels={0, \(1-\frac{1}{2}\delta\), \(1+\frac{1}{2}\delta\), 2},
      ytick={0, 1},
    ]
    \addplot[domain=0:2, ultra thick]{fdelta(x)};
  \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Now if I add the samples=11 option to \addplot, the picture changes position in the resulting PDF file! If I keep increasing the sample size, the picture eventually moves outside of the margins of the document...

In addition to the moving plot issue, finding an appropriate sample size for a piecewise linear function is a bit frustrating because the samples often "miss" the junction points. Is there a way to set samples piecewise as well?

As a secondary question, is it possible to set the values of xtick using \DELTA, as in the function definition?

Thanks!

Note: my example uses amsbook, but I observe the same behavior with standalone.

Answer 1

I was able to eliminate the behavior by eliminating the space after \pgfmathparse.

\documentclass{article}
\pagestyle{empty}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.8}


\newcommand{\DELTA}{.3}
\pgfmathdeclarefunction{fdelta}{1}{%
    \pgfmathparse{%
      and(#1 >= 1-\DELTA/2, #1 <= 1+\DELTA/2) * (1 - 2 * abs(#1 - 1) / \DELTA)%
    }%
 }

\newcommand{\g}[1]{
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=0.75]
  \begin{axis}[
      title={$f_{\delta}(x)$},
      xmin=0, xmax=2,
      xtick={0, .85, 1.15, 2},
      xticklabels={0, \(1-\frac{1}{2}\delta\), \(1+\frac{1}{2}\delta\), 2},
      ytick={0, 1},
      samples=#1
    ]
    \addplot[domain=0:2, ultra thick]{fdelta(x)};
  \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}}

\begin{document}

\g{10}

\g{11}

\g{20}


\end{document}