JFreeChart disable vertical gray areas of XYPlot - jfreechart

Question

The code below plots a graph with unwanted vertical gray areas (stripes) corresponding with alternate domain ticks.
I have tried unsuccessfully to remove them from the graph to obtain a plot with white background.
I have been searching through the methods of XYPlot or NumberAxis (last try was setting to null xyplot.setDomainTickBandPaint(null); and xyplot.setRangeTickBandPaint(null);), but I have not experience enough with JFreeChart to know what method to use.
This is the code for the above graph:
public class MyPlotChart {
private static Color MetalColor = new Color(255, 152, 0);
static double[] yData = new double[] { 49.68, 49.18, 49.78, 49.65, 48.94, 50.02, 50.27};
static String[] labels = new String[] { "2021-10-28", "2021-10-29", "2021-11-01", "2021-11-02", "2021-11-03", "2021-11-04", "2021-11-05"};
public static void plot(String metal, int samples) throws IOException {
XYSeries series = new XYSeries(metal);
int i = 0;
for (i = 0; i < yData.length; i++) {
series.add(i, yData[i]);
}
XYDataset dataset = new XYSeriesCollection(series);
NumberAxis domain = new SymbolAxis(null, labels);
NumberAxis verticalAxis = new NumberAxis(null);
verticalAxis.setAutoRangeIncludesZero(false);
domain.setTickUnit(new NumberTickUnit(1.0));
domain.setMarkerBand(null);
double vericalTickUnit = (series.getMaxY() - series.getMinY()) / 5;
NumberFormat numberFormat = NumberFormat.getInstance(Locale.getDefault());
numberFormat.setRoundingMode(RoundingMode.HALF_DOWN);
numberFormat.setMinimumFractionDigits(2);
numberFormat.setMaximumFractionDigits(2);
NumberTickUnit nt = new NumberTickUnit(vericalTickUnit, numberFormat);
verticalAxis.setTickUnit(nt);
verticalAxis.setAutoRange(true);
verticalAxis.setRange(new Range(series.getMinY()-0.1, series.getMaxY()+0.1));
verticalAxis.setTickMarksVisible(true);
verticalAxis.setTickMarkInsideLength(3f);
XYSplineRenderer r = new XYSplineRenderer(10);
r.setSeriesPaint(0, MetalColor);
r.setDefaultShapesVisible(false);
r.setSeriesStroke(0, new BasicStroke(3.0f));
XYPlot xyplot = new XYPlot(dataset, domain, verticalAxis, r);
xyplot.getDomainAxis().setVerticalTickLabels(true);
xyplot.setDomainGridlinesVisible(false);
xyplot.setBackgroundImage(null);
xyplot.setBackgroundPaint(Color.WHITE);
Font font = xyplot.getDomainAxis().getTickLabelFont();
Font fontnew = new Font(font.getName(), Font.BOLD, 14);
xyplot.getDomainAxis().setTickLabelFont(fontnew);
xyplot.getRangeAxis().setTickLabelFont(fontnew);
JFreeChart chart = new JFreeChart(xyplot);
chart.removeLegend();//Remove legend
chart.setBackgroundPaint(Color.WHITE);
String fileName = "myChart"+metal+samples+"TEST.png";
ChartUtils.saveChartAsPNG(new File(fileName), chart, 600, 600);
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
MyPlotChart.plot("metal", 7);
}
}

Answer 1

As suggested in the comment, I opted to use DateAxis which do not implement alternating background and also gives more accurate treatment for tick labels when the data is time related.
I have attached the code and the plot obtained:
public class MyPlotChart {
private static Color MetalColor = new Color(255, 152, 0);
static double[] yData = new double[] { 49.68, 49.18, 49.78, 49.65, 48.94, 50.02, 50.27 };
static String[] labels = new String[] { "2021-10-28", "2021-10-29", "2021-11-01", "2021-11-02", "2021-11-03",
"2021-11-04", "2021-11-05" };
public static void plot(String metal, int samples) throws IOException, ParseException {
SimpleDateFormat dateformatyyyy_MM_dd = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
SimpleDateFormat dateformatdd_MM_yyyy = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy");
XYSeries series = new XYSeries(metal);
for (int i = 0; i < yData.length; i++) {
Date date = dateformatyyyy_MM_dd.parse(labels[i]);
series.add(date.getTime(), yData[i]);
}
//Configure Vertical Axis
NumberAxis verticalAxis = new NumberAxis(null);
NumberFormat numberFormat = NumberFormat.getInstance(Locale.getDefault());
numberFormat.setRoundingMode(RoundingMode.HALF_DOWN);
numberFormat.setMinimumFractionDigits(2);
numberFormat.setMaximumFractionDigits(2);
double vericalTickUnit = (series.getMaxY() - series.getMinY()) / 7;
NumberTickUnit nt = new NumberTickUnit(vericalTickUnit, numberFormat);
verticalAxis.setTickUnit(nt);
double percentOverRange = 0.05;// 2%
double initalRange = series.getMaxY() - series.getMinY();
double increase = initalRange * percentOverRange;
verticalAxis.setRange(new Range(series.getMinY()-increase, series.getMaxY()+increase));
verticalAxis.setAutoRange(true);
verticalAxis.setAutoRangeIncludesZero(false);
verticalAxis.setTickMarksVisible(true);
verticalAxis.setTickMarkInsideLength(3f);
//Configure Domain Axis
DateAxis domainAxis = new DateAxis(null);
domainAxis.setTickUnit(new DateTickUnit(DateTickUnitType.DAY, 1, dateformatdd_MM_yyyy));
//Configure Renderer
XYSplineRenderer r = new XYSplineRenderer(10);
r.setSeriesPaint(0, MetalColor);
r.setDefaultShapesVisible(false);
r.setSeriesStroke(0, new BasicStroke(3.0f));
XYDataset dataset = new XYSeriesCollection(series);
XYPlot xyplot = new XYPlot(dataset, domainAxis, verticalAxis, r);
xyplot.getDomainAxis().setVerticalTickLabels(true);
xyplot.setDomainGridlinesVisible(false);
xyplot.setBackgroundImage(null);
xyplot.setBackgroundPaint(Color.WHITE);
Font font = xyplot.getDomainAxis().getTickLabelFont();
Font fontnew = new Font(font.getName(), Font.BOLD, 14);
xyplot.getDomainAxis().setTickLabelFont(fontnew);
xyplot.getRangeAxis().setTickLabelFont(fontnew);
JFreeChart chart = new JFreeChart(xyplot);
chart.removeLegend();// Remove legend
chart.setBackgroundPaint(Color.WHITE);
String fileName = "myChart" + metal + samples + "TEST.png";
ChartUtils.saveChartAsPNG(new File(fileName), chart, 600, 600);
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, ParseException {
MyPlotChart.plot("metal", 7);
}
}