Matplotlib Example

In this tutorial, we will write a basic Python program to display a plot using Matplotlib library.

In the following example, we will draw a simple line plot using X-axis and Y-axis data.

example.py

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import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# data for plotting
x = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]
y = [5, 7, 8, 1, 4, 9, 6, 3, 5, 2, 1, 8]

plt.plot(x, y)

plt.xlabel('x-axis label')
plt.ylabel('y-axis label')
plt.title('Matplotlib Example')

plt.savefig("output.jpg")

Output

Let us understand each of the statements in the above program.

Import

Import matplotlib.pyplot.

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import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

This is a state based interface to matplotlib. We can use this to draw plots.

Data

Get the data that we would like to plot.

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x = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]
y = [5, 7, 8, 1, 4, 9, 6, 3, 5, 2, 1, 8]

This is a state based interface to matplotlib. We can use this to draw plots.

Plot

Pass the x-axis and y-axis data to plot() function.

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plt.plot(x, y)

Plot Title, X Label, Y Label

We may set the X axis label, Y axis label and Title to the plot by calling xlabel(), ylabel() and title() functions on pyplot, respectively.

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plt.xlabel('x-axis label')
plt.ylabel('y-axis label')
plt.title('Matplotlib Example')

Show Plot

Finally, we can display the plot to user, in a window, using show() function.

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plt.show()

Conclusion

Concluding this Matplotlib Tutorial, we learned how to write a draw a simple plot using Matplotlib library in Python.

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Matplotlib Example