# How to specify xtick={<>} when using x-coordinate in DATE-format and not using [date coordinates in = x]?

Depending on this question how to plot regression on DATE x-axes I post the MWE from Christian Feuersänger:

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepgfplotslibrary{dateplot}
\begin{filecontents}{data.dat}
date            value1
2010-01-01      2
2010-01-02      10
2010-01-03      8
2010-01-04      15
\end{filecontents}
\usepackage{pgfplotstable}

% formats row \ticknum of the input table using '#3'
% #1: table name
% #2: column name
% #3: formatting instruction like \day.\month.\year
\newcommand\datelabelsfromtable[3]{%
\begingroup
\countdef\result=\count200 %
\pgfplotstablegetelem{\ticknum}{#2}\of{#1}%
\pgfcalendardatetojulian{\pgfplotsretval}{\result}%
\pgfcalendarjuliantodate{\result}\year\month\day
%
#3%
\endgroup
}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}

\begin{axis}[
x tick label style={yshift=-3pt,xshift=-4pt,rotate=-30,anchor=west},
xticklabel={\datelabelsfromtable{data.dat}{date}{\day.\month.\year}},
xtick=data,
]
\addplot table [x expr=\coordindex,y=value1] {data.dat};
\addplot table [x expr=\coordindex, y={create col/linear regression={y=value1}}] {data.dat};
\end{axis}

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

The regression-line on this works and I hope I understood his command. Using my data I want that PGF uses all of my specified data-points inside the .dat file. However, I don't want to use

xtick=data,

But I would like to specify for which data points the labels are written as the first half of my graph is not so important but at the end i would like to have more ticks. Using the exmaple data from the MWE, I would think of something lise this , skipping 2010-01-02:

xtick={2010-01-01, 2010-01-03, 2010-01-04}

I tried different versions of this just like {2010} but always receive an error (maybe because the x dates are not declared as DATE? Doing so also result an in error).

So to sum it up:

How can I use the approach from Feuersänger (or if someone has another idea for using Dates when doing regression) but can specify which ticks are printed and not just using xtick=data?

Using the code from https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/372049/95441 (as suggested also in your parallel question) using xtick there works perfectly fine ...

% used PGFPlots(Table) v1.16
% (code from <https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/372049/95441>)
\begin{filecontents*}{testtable.csv}
date;value
2017-01-01;0
2017-01-02;1
2017-01-11;2
2017-01-12;3
2017-02-01;4
2017-02-02;5
\end{filecontents*}
\documentclass[border=5pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgfcalendar}    % <-- to convert the dates to Julian integers
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{pgfplotstable}  % <-- to manipulate the data file/table
\usepgfplotslibrary{dateplot}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.14}
% add new column with Julian integer numbers
% therefore a counter is needed
\newcount\julianday
\pgfplotstablecreatecol[
create col/assign/.code={
% convert the number of the current row and save it to \julianday'
\pgfcalendardatetojulian{\thisrow{date}}{\julianday}
% then give the entry of \julianday' to \entry' which is then
% given to the current cell
\edef\entry{\the\julianday}
\pgfkeyslet{/pgfplots/table/create col/next content}\entry
},
]{JulianDay}{\data}
% because the dateplot' library shifts automatically all dates to 0 using
% the first found coordinate we can't use the created JulianDay' data
% directly for linear regression', but have to do the same first with
% the data
% get the first coordinate of the column ...
\pgfplotstablegetelem{0}{JulianDay}\of{\data}
% ... and store it in \xmin'
\pgfmathtruncatemacro{\xmin}{\pgfplotsretval}
% now create another column with the shifted values
\pgfplotstablecreatecol[
expr={\thisrow{JulianDay}-\xmin},
]{JulianDayMod}{\data}
\begin{document}
% --------------------------------------------------------
%% for debugging purposes only
%% show resulting numbers, if you want
%\pgfplotstabletypeset[
%    column type=l,
%    columns={date,JulianDay,JulianDayMod,value},
%    columns/date/.style={string type},
%    columns/JulianDay/.style={/pgf/number format/fixed},
%]\data
% --------------------------------------------------------
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
date coordinates in=x,
% =====================================================================
% providing xtick's works perfectly fine
xtick={2017-01-01,2017-01-31},
% =====================================================================
]
\addplot+ [only marks] table [x=date,y=value] {\data};
\addplot+ [mark=none]  table [
x=date,
% now we can use the newly created column to do the linear regression
y={create col/linear regression={
x=JulianDayMod,
y=value,
}}
] {\data};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}