I am a little confused about how this code works:
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
plt.show()
How does the fig, axes work in this case? What does it do?
Also why wouldn't this work to do the same thing:
fig = plt.figure()
axes = fig.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
There are several ways to do it. The subplots method creates the figure along with the subplots that are then stored in the ax array. For example:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
x = range(10)
y = range(10)
fig, ax = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
for row in ax:
for col in row:
col.plot(x, y)
plt.show()
However, something like this will also work, it's not so "clean" though since you are creating a figure with subplots and then add on top of them:
fig = plt.figure()
plt.subplot(2, 2, 1)
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.subplot(2, 2, 2)
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.subplot(2, 2, 3)
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.subplot(2, 2, 4)
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.show()
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, ax = plt.subplots(2, 2)
ax[0, 0].plot(range(10), 'r') #row=0, col=0
ax[1, 0].plot(range(10), 'b') #row=1, col=0
ax[0, 1].plot(range(10), 'g') #row=0, col=1
ax[1, 1].plot(range(10), 'k') #row=1, col=1
plt.show()
You can also unpack the axes in the subplots call
And set whether you want to share the x and y axes between the subplots
Like this:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# fig, ((ax1, ax2), (ax3, ax4)) = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, sharex=True, sharey=True)
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, sharex=True, sharey=True)
ax1, ax2, ax3, ax4 = axes.flatten()
ax1.plot(range(10), 'r')
ax2.plot(range(10), 'b')
ax3.plot(range(10), 'g')
ax4.plot(range(10), 'k')
plt.show()
You might be interested in the fact that as of matplotlib version 2.1 the second code from the question works fine as well.
From the change log:
Figure class now has subplots method
The Figure class now has a subplots() method which behaves the same as pyplot.subplots() but on an existing figure.
Example:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig = plt.figure()
axes = fig.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
plt.show()
Read the documentation: matplotlib.pyplot.subplots
pyplot.subplots() returns a tuple fig, ax which is unpacked in two variables using the notation
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
The code:
fig = plt.figure()
axes = fig.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
does not work because subplots() is a function in pyplot not a member of the object Figure.
Iterating through all subplots sequentially:
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows, ncols)
for ax in axes.flatten():
ax.plot(x,y)
Accessing a specific index:
for row in range(nrows):
for col in range(ncols):
axes[row,col].plot(x[row], y[col])
Subplots with pandas
This answer is for subplots with pandas, which uses matplotlib as the default plotting backend.
Here are four options to create subplots starting with a pandas.DataFrame
Implementation 1. and 2. are for the data in a wide format, creating subplots for each column.
Implementation 3. and 4. are for data in a long format, creating subplots for each unique value in a column.
Tested in python 3.8.11, pandas 1.3.2, matplotlib 3.4.3, seaborn 0.11.2
Imports and Data
import seaborn as sns # data only
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns
# wide dataframe
df = sns.load_dataset('planets').iloc[:, 2:5]
orbital_period mass distance
0 269.300 7.10 77.40
1 874.774 2.21 56.95
2 763.000 2.60 19.84
3 326.030 19.40 110.62
4 516.220 10.50 119.47
# long dataframe
dfm = sns.load_dataset('planets').iloc[:, 2:5].melt()
variable value
0 orbital_period 269.300
1 orbital_period 874.774
2 orbital_period 763.000
3 orbital_period 326.030
4 orbital_period 516.220
1. subplots=True and layout, for each column
Use the parameters subplots=True and layout=(rows, cols) in pandas.DataFrame.plot
This example uses kind='density', but there are different options for kind, and this applies to them all. Without specifying kind, a line plot is the default.
ax is array of AxesSubplot returned by pandas.DataFrame.plot
See How to get a Figure object, if needed.
How to save pandas subplots
axes = df.plot(kind='density', subplots=True, layout=(2, 2), sharex=False, figsize=(10, 6))
# extract the figure object; only used for tight_layout in this example
fig = axes[0][0].get_figure()
# set the individual titles
for ax, title in zip(axes.ravel(), df.columns):
ax.set_title(title)
fig.tight_layout()
plt.show()
2. plt.subplots, for each column
Create an array of Axes with matplotlib.pyplot.subplots and then pass axes[i, j] or axes[n] to the ax parameter.
This option uses pandas.DataFrame.plot, but can use other axes level plot calls as a substitute (e.g. sns.kdeplot, plt.plot, etc.)
It's easiest to collapse the subplot array of Axes into one dimension with .ravel or .flatten. See .ravel vs .flatten.
Any variables applying to each axes, that need to be iterate through, are combined with .zip (e.g. cols, axes, colors, palette, etc.). Each object must be the same length.
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(10, 6)) # define the figure and subplots
axes = axes.ravel() # array to 1D
cols = df.columns # create a list of dataframe columns to use
colors = ['tab:blue', 'tab:orange', 'tab:green'] # list of colors for each subplot, otherwise all subplots will be one color
for col, color, ax in zip(cols, colors, axes):
df[col].plot(kind='density', ax=ax, color=color, label=col, title=col)
ax.legend()
fig.delaxes(axes[3]) # delete the empty subplot
fig.tight_layout()
plt.show()
Result for 1. and 2.
3. plt.subplots, for each group in .groupby
This is similar to 2., except it zips color and axes to a .groupby object.
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(10, 6)) # define the figure and subplots
axes = axes.ravel() # array to 1D
dfg = dfm.groupby('variable') # get data for each unique value in the first column
colors = ['tab:blue', 'tab:orange', 'tab:green'] # list of colors for each subplot, otherwise all subplots will be one color
for (group, data), color, ax in zip(dfg, colors, axes):
data.plot(kind='density', ax=ax, color=color, title=group, legend=False)
fig.delaxes(axes[3]) # delete the empty subplot
fig.tight_layout()
plt.show()
4. seaborn figure-level plot
Use a seaborn figure-level plot, and use the col or row parameter. seaborn is a high-level API for matplotlib. See seaborn: API reference
p = sns.displot(data=dfm, kind='kde', col='variable', col_wrap=2, x='value', hue='variable',
facet_kws={'sharey': False, 'sharex': False}, height=3.5, aspect=1.75)
sns.move_legend(p, "upper left", bbox_to_anchor=(.55, .45))
Convert the axes array to 1D
Generating subplots with plt.subplots(nrows, ncols), where both nrows and ncols is greater than 1, returns a nested array of <AxesSubplot:> objects.
It’s not necessary to flatten axes in cases where either nrows=1 or ncols=1, because axes will already be 1 dimensional, which is a result of the default parameter squeeze=True
The easiest way to access the objects, is to convert the array to 1 dimension with .ravel(), .flatten(), or .flat.
.ravel vs. .flatten
flatten always returns a copy.
ravel returns a view of the original array whenever possible.
Once the array of axes is converted to 1-d, there are a number of ways to plot.
This answer is relevant to seaborn axes-level plots, which have the ax= parameter (e.g. sns.barplot(…, ax=ax[0]).
seaborn is a high-level API for matplotlib. See Figure-level vs. axes-level functions and seaborn is not plotting within defined subplots
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np # sample data only
# example of data
rads = np.arange(0, 2*np.pi, 0.01)
y_data = np.array([np.sin(t*rads) for t in range(1, 5)])
x_data = [rads, rads, rads, rads]
# Generate figure and its subplots
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
# axes before
array([[<AxesSubplot:>, <AxesSubplot:>],
[<AxesSubplot:>, <AxesSubplot:>]], dtype=object)
# convert the array to 1 dimension
axes = axes.ravel()
# axes after
array([<AxesSubplot:>, <AxesSubplot:>, <AxesSubplot:>, <AxesSubplot:>],
dtype=object)
Iterate through the flattened array
If there are more subplots than data, this will result in IndexError: list index out of range
Try option 3. instead, or select a subset of the axes (e.g. axes[:-2])
for i, ax in enumerate(axes):
ax.plot(x_data[i], y_data[i])
Access each axes by index
axes[0].plot(x_data[0], y_data[0])
axes[1].plot(x_data[1], y_data[1])
axes[2].plot(x_data[2], y_data[2])
axes[3].plot(x_data[3], y_data[3])
Index the data and axes
for i in range(len(x_data)):
axes[i].plot(x_data[i], y_data[i])
zip the axes and data together and then iterate through the list of tuples.
for ax, x, y in zip(axes, x_data, y_data):
ax.plot(x, y)
Ouput
An option is to assign each axes to a variable, fig, (ax1, ax2, ax3) = plt.subplots(1, 3). However, as written, this only works in cases with either nrows=1 or ncols=1. This is based on the shape of the array returned by plt.subplots, and quickly becomes cumbersome.
fig, ((ax1, ax2), (ax3, ax4)) = plt.subplots(2, 2) for a 2 x 2 array.
This option is most useful for two subplots (e.g.: fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(1, 2) or fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(2, 1)). For more subplots, it's more efficient to flatten and iterate through the array of axes.
You could use the following:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, _ = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
for i, ax in enumerate(fig.axes):
ax.plot(np.sin(np.linspace(0,2*np.pi,100) + np.pi/2*i))
Or alternatively, using the second variable that plt.subplot returns:
fig, ax_mat = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
for i, ax in enumerate(ax_mat.flatten()):
...
ax_mat is a matrix of the axes. It's shape is nrows x ncols.
here is a simple solution
fig, ax = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=3, sharex=True, sharey=False)
for sp in fig.axes:
sp.plot(range(10))
Go with the following if you really want to use a loop:
def plot(data):
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(100, 100))
for idx, k in enumerate(data.keys(), 1):
x, y = data[k].keys(), data[k].values
plt.subplot(63, 10, idx)
plt.bar(x, y)
plt.show()
Another concise solution is:
// set up structure of plots
f, (ax1, ax2, ax3) = plt.subplots(1, 3, figsize=(20,10))
// for plot 1
ax1.set_title('Title A')
ax1.plot(x, y)
// for plot 2
ax2.set_title('Title B')
ax2.plot(x, y)
// for plot 3
ax3.set_title('Title C')
ax3.plot(x,y)
Related
I am a little confused about how this code works:
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
plt.show()
How does the fig, axes work in this case? What does it do?
Also why wouldn't this work to do the same thing:
fig = plt.figure()
axes = fig.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
There are several ways to do it. The subplots method creates the figure along with the subplots that are then stored in the ax array. For example:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
x = range(10)
y = range(10)
fig, ax = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
for row in ax:
for col in row:
col.plot(x, y)
plt.show()
However, something like this will also work, it's not so "clean" though since you are creating a figure with subplots and then add on top of them:
fig = plt.figure()
plt.subplot(2, 2, 1)
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.subplot(2, 2, 2)
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.subplot(2, 2, 3)
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.subplot(2, 2, 4)
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.show()
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, ax = plt.subplots(2, 2)
ax[0, 0].plot(range(10), 'r') #row=0, col=0
ax[1, 0].plot(range(10), 'b') #row=1, col=0
ax[0, 1].plot(range(10), 'g') #row=0, col=1
ax[1, 1].plot(range(10), 'k') #row=1, col=1
plt.show()
You can also unpack the axes in the subplots call
And set whether you want to share the x and y axes between the subplots
Like this:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# fig, ((ax1, ax2), (ax3, ax4)) = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, sharex=True, sharey=True)
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, sharex=True, sharey=True)
ax1, ax2, ax3, ax4 = axes.flatten()
ax1.plot(range(10), 'r')
ax2.plot(range(10), 'b')
ax3.plot(range(10), 'g')
ax4.plot(range(10), 'k')
plt.show()
You might be interested in the fact that as of matplotlib version 2.1 the second code from the question works fine as well.
From the change log:
Figure class now has subplots method
The Figure class now has a subplots() method which behaves the same as pyplot.subplots() but on an existing figure.
Example:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig = plt.figure()
axes = fig.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
plt.show()
Read the documentation: matplotlib.pyplot.subplots
pyplot.subplots() returns a tuple fig, ax which is unpacked in two variables using the notation
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
The code:
fig = plt.figure()
axes = fig.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
does not work because subplots() is a function in pyplot not a member of the object Figure.
Iterating through all subplots sequentially:
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows, ncols)
for ax in axes.flatten():
ax.plot(x,y)
Accessing a specific index:
for row in range(nrows):
for col in range(ncols):
axes[row,col].plot(x[row], y[col])
Subplots with pandas
This answer is for subplots with pandas, which uses matplotlib as the default plotting backend.
Here are four options to create subplots starting with a pandas.DataFrame
Implementation 1. and 2. are for the data in a wide format, creating subplots for each column.
Implementation 3. and 4. are for data in a long format, creating subplots for each unique value in a column.
Tested in python 3.8.11, pandas 1.3.2, matplotlib 3.4.3, seaborn 0.11.2
Imports and Data
import seaborn as sns # data only
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns
# wide dataframe
df = sns.load_dataset('planets').iloc[:, 2:5]
orbital_period mass distance
0 269.300 7.10 77.40
1 874.774 2.21 56.95
2 763.000 2.60 19.84
3 326.030 19.40 110.62
4 516.220 10.50 119.47
# long dataframe
dfm = sns.load_dataset('planets').iloc[:, 2:5].melt()
variable value
0 orbital_period 269.300
1 orbital_period 874.774
2 orbital_period 763.000
3 orbital_period 326.030
4 orbital_period 516.220
1. subplots=True and layout, for each column
Use the parameters subplots=True and layout=(rows, cols) in pandas.DataFrame.plot
This example uses kind='density', but there are different options for kind, and this applies to them all. Without specifying kind, a line plot is the default.
ax is array of AxesSubplot returned by pandas.DataFrame.plot
See How to get a Figure object, if needed.
How to save pandas subplots
axes = df.plot(kind='density', subplots=True, layout=(2, 2), sharex=False, figsize=(10, 6))
# extract the figure object; only used for tight_layout in this example
fig = axes[0][0].get_figure()
# set the individual titles
for ax, title in zip(axes.ravel(), df.columns):
ax.set_title(title)
fig.tight_layout()
plt.show()
2. plt.subplots, for each column
Create an array of Axes with matplotlib.pyplot.subplots and then pass axes[i, j] or axes[n] to the ax parameter.
This option uses pandas.DataFrame.plot, but can use other axes level plot calls as a substitute (e.g. sns.kdeplot, plt.plot, etc.)
It's easiest to collapse the subplot array of Axes into one dimension with .ravel or .flatten. See .ravel vs .flatten.
Any variables applying to each axes, that need to be iterate through, are combined with .zip (e.g. cols, axes, colors, palette, etc.). Each object must be the same length.
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(10, 6)) # define the figure and subplots
axes = axes.ravel() # array to 1D
cols = df.columns # create a list of dataframe columns to use
colors = ['tab:blue', 'tab:orange', 'tab:green'] # list of colors for each subplot, otherwise all subplots will be one color
for col, color, ax in zip(cols, colors, axes):
df[col].plot(kind='density', ax=ax, color=color, label=col, title=col)
ax.legend()
fig.delaxes(axes[3]) # delete the empty subplot
fig.tight_layout()
plt.show()
Result for 1. and 2.
3. plt.subplots, for each group in .groupby
This is similar to 2., except it zips color and axes to a .groupby object.
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, figsize=(10, 6)) # define the figure and subplots
axes = axes.ravel() # array to 1D
dfg = dfm.groupby('variable') # get data for each unique value in the first column
colors = ['tab:blue', 'tab:orange', 'tab:green'] # list of colors for each subplot, otherwise all subplots will be one color
for (group, data), color, ax in zip(dfg, colors, axes):
data.plot(kind='density', ax=ax, color=color, title=group, legend=False)
fig.delaxes(axes[3]) # delete the empty subplot
fig.tight_layout()
plt.show()
4. seaborn figure-level plot
Use a seaborn figure-level plot, and use the col or row parameter. seaborn is a high-level API for matplotlib. See seaborn: API reference
p = sns.displot(data=dfm, kind='kde', col='variable', col_wrap=2, x='value', hue='variable',
facet_kws={'sharey': False, 'sharex': False}, height=3.5, aspect=1.75)
sns.move_legend(p, "upper left", bbox_to_anchor=(.55, .45))
Convert the axes array to 1D
Generating subplots with plt.subplots(nrows, ncols), where both nrows and ncols is greater than 1, returns a nested array of <AxesSubplot:> objects.
It’s not necessary to flatten axes in cases where either nrows=1 or ncols=1, because axes will already be 1 dimensional, which is a result of the default parameter squeeze=True
The easiest way to access the objects, is to convert the array to 1 dimension with .ravel(), .flatten(), or .flat.
.ravel vs. .flatten
flatten always returns a copy.
ravel returns a view of the original array whenever possible.
Once the array of axes is converted to 1-d, there are a number of ways to plot.
This answer is relevant to seaborn axes-level plots, which have the ax= parameter (e.g. sns.barplot(…, ax=ax[0]).
seaborn is a high-level API for matplotlib. See Figure-level vs. axes-level functions and seaborn is not plotting within defined subplots
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np # sample data only
# example of data
rads = np.arange(0, 2*np.pi, 0.01)
y_data = np.array([np.sin(t*rads) for t in range(1, 5)])
x_data = [rads, rads, rads, rads]
# Generate figure and its subplots
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
# axes before
array([[<AxesSubplot:>, <AxesSubplot:>],
[<AxesSubplot:>, <AxesSubplot:>]], dtype=object)
# convert the array to 1 dimension
axes = axes.ravel()
# axes after
array([<AxesSubplot:>, <AxesSubplot:>, <AxesSubplot:>, <AxesSubplot:>],
dtype=object)
Iterate through the flattened array
If there are more subplots than data, this will result in IndexError: list index out of range
Try option 3. instead, or select a subset of the axes (e.g. axes[:-2])
for i, ax in enumerate(axes):
ax.plot(x_data[i], y_data[i])
Access each axes by index
axes[0].plot(x_data[0], y_data[0])
axes[1].plot(x_data[1], y_data[1])
axes[2].plot(x_data[2], y_data[2])
axes[3].plot(x_data[3], y_data[3])
Index the data and axes
for i in range(len(x_data)):
axes[i].plot(x_data[i], y_data[i])
zip the axes and data together and then iterate through the list of tuples.
for ax, x, y in zip(axes, x_data, y_data):
ax.plot(x, y)
Ouput
An option is to assign each axes to a variable, fig, (ax1, ax2, ax3) = plt.subplots(1, 3). However, as written, this only works in cases with either nrows=1 or ncols=1. This is based on the shape of the array returned by plt.subplots, and quickly becomes cumbersome.
fig, ((ax1, ax2), (ax3, ax4)) = plt.subplots(2, 2) for a 2 x 2 array.
This option is most useful for two subplots (e.g.: fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(1, 2) or fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(2, 1)). For more subplots, it's more efficient to flatten and iterate through the array of axes.
You could use the following:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, _ = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
for i, ax in enumerate(fig.axes):
ax.plot(np.sin(np.linspace(0,2*np.pi,100) + np.pi/2*i))
Or alternatively, using the second variable that plt.subplot returns:
fig, ax_mat = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
for i, ax in enumerate(ax_mat.flatten()):
...
ax_mat is a matrix of the axes. It's shape is nrows x ncols.
here is a simple solution
fig, ax = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=3, sharex=True, sharey=False)
for sp in fig.axes:
sp.plot(range(10))
Go with the following if you really want to use a loop:
def plot(data):
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(100, 100))
for idx, k in enumerate(data.keys(), 1):
x, y = data[k].keys(), data[k].values
plt.subplot(63, 10, idx)
plt.bar(x, y)
plt.show()
Another concise solution is:
// set up structure of plots
f, (ax1, ax2, ax3) = plt.subplots(1, 3, figsize=(20,10))
// for plot 1
ax1.set_title('Title A')
ax1.plot(x, y)
// for plot 2
ax2.set_title('Title B')
ax2.plot(x, y)
// for plot 3
ax3.set_title('Title C')
ax3.plot(x,y)
I want 3 rows of subplots each of different widths, but which all share the same X-axis, such as in the rough mock-up below. How can I do this? Can I use sharex=True even in GridSpec-adjusted plots?
You can place the axes by hand, or another method is to use an inset_axes:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
fig, axs = plt.subplots(3, 1, constrained_layout=True, sharex=True, sharey=True)
ylim=[-3, 3]
axs[2].plot(np.random.randn(500))
axs[2].set_ylim(ylim)
xlim = axs[2].get_xlim()
ax0 = axs[0].inset_axes([300, ylim[0], xlim[1]-300, ylim[1]-ylim[0]], transform=axs[0].transData)
ax0.set_ylim(ylim)
ax0.set_xlim([300, xlim[1]])
axs[0].axis('off')
ax0.plot(np.arange(300, 500), np.random.randn(200))
ax1 = axs[1].inset_axes([150, ylim[0], xlim[1] - 150, ylim[1]-ylim[0]], transform=axs[1].transData)
ax1.set_ylim(ylim)
ax1.set_xlim([150, xlim[1]])
axs[1].axis('off')
ax1.plot(np.arange(150, 500), np.random.randn(350))
plt.show()
You can pass which axes to use as reference for sharing axes when you create your subplot
fig = plt.figure()
gs = matplotlib.gridspec.GridSpec(3,3, figure=fig)
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(gs[0,2])
ax2 = fig.add_subplot(gs[1,1:], sharex=ax1)
ax3 = fig.add_subplot(gs[2,:], sharex=ax1)
ax1.plot([1,5,0])
I've spent entirely too long researching how to get two subplots to share the same y-axis with a single colorbar shared between the two in Matplotlib.
What was happening was that when I called the colorbar() function in either subplot1 or subplot2, it would autoscale the plot such that the colorbar plus the plot would fit inside the 'subplot' bounding box, causing the two side-by-side plots to be two very different sizes.
To get around this, I tried to create a third subplot which I then hacked to render no plot with just a colorbar present.
The only problem is, now the heights and widths of the two plots are uneven, and I can't figure out how to make it look okay.
Here is my code:
from __future__ import division
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from matplotlib import patches
from matplotlib.ticker import NullFormatter
# SIS Functions
TE = 1 # Einstein radius
g1 = lambda x,y: (TE/2) * (y**2-x**2)/((x**2+y**2)**(3/2))
g2 = lambda x,y: -1*TE*x*y / ((x**2+y**2)**(3/2))
kappa = lambda x,y: TE / (2*np.sqrt(x**2+y**2))
coords = np.linspace(-2,2,400)
X,Y = np.meshgrid(coords,coords)
g1out = g1(X,Y)
g2out = g2(X,Y)
kappaout = kappa(X,Y)
for i in range(len(coords)):
for j in range(len(coords)):
if np.sqrt(coords[i]**2+coords[j]**2) <= TE:
g1out[i][j]=0
g2out[i][j]=0
fig = plt.figure()
fig.subplots_adjust(wspace=0,hspace=0)
# subplot number 1
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(1,2,1,aspect='equal',xlim=[-2,2],ylim=[-2,2])
plt.title(r"$\gamma_{1}$",fontsize="18")
plt.xlabel(r"x ($\theta_{E}$)",fontsize="15")
plt.ylabel(r"y ($\theta_{E}$)",rotation='horizontal',fontsize="15")
plt.xticks([-2.0,-1.5,-1.0,-0.5,0,0.5,1.0,1.5])
plt.xticks([-2.0,-1.5,-1.0,-0.5,0,0.5,1.0,1.5])
plt.imshow(g1out,extent=(-2,2,-2,2))
plt.axhline(y=0,linewidth=2,color='k',linestyle="--")
plt.axvline(x=0,linewidth=2,color='k',linestyle="--")
e1 = patches.Ellipse((0,0),2,2,color='white')
ax1.add_patch(e1)
# subplot number 2
ax2 = fig.add_subplot(1,2,2,sharey=ax1,xlim=[-2,2],ylim=[-2,2])
plt.title(r"$\gamma_{2}$",fontsize="18")
plt.xlabel(r"x ($\theta_{E}$)",fontsize="15")
ax2.yaxis.set_major_formatter( NullFormatter() )
plt.axhline(y=0,linewidth=2,color='k',linestyle="--")
plt.axvline(x=0,linewidth=2,color='k',linestyle="--")
plt.imshow(g2out,extent=(-2,2,-2,2))
e2 = patches.Ellipse((0,0),2,2,color='white')
ax2.add_patch(e2)
# subplot for colorbar
ax3 = fig.add_subplot(1,1,1)
ax3.axis('off')
cbar = plt.colorbar(ax=ax2)
plt.show()
Just place the colorbar in its own axis and use subplots_adjust to make room for it.
As a quick example:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
for ax in axes.flat:
im = ax.imshow(np.random.random((10,10)), vmin=0, vmax=1)
fig.subplots_adjust(right=0.8)
cbar_ax = fig.add_axes([0.85, 0.15, 0.05, 0.7])
fig.colorbar(im, cax=cbar_ax)
plt.show()
Note that the color range will be set by the last image plotted (that gave rise to im) even if the range of values is set by vmin and vmax. If another plot has, for example, a higher max value, points with higher values than the max of im will show in uniform color.
You can simplify Joe Kington's code using the axparameter of figure.colorbar() with a list of axes.
From the documentation:
ax
None | parent axes object(s) from which space for a new colorbar axes will be stolen. If a list of axes is given they will all be resized to make room for the colorbar axes.
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
for ax in axes.flat:
im = ax.imshow(np.random.random((10,10)), vmin=0, vmax=1)
fig.colorbar(im, ax=axes.ravel().tolist())
plt.show()
This solution does not require manual tweaking of axes locations or colorbar size, works with multi-row and single-row layouts, and works with tight_layout(). It is adapted from a gallery example, using ImageGrid from matplotlib's AxesGrid Toolbox.
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1 import ImageGrid
# Set up figure and image grid
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(9.75, 3))
grid = ImageGrid(fig, 111, # as in plt.subplot(111)
nrows_ncols=(1,3),
axes_pad=0.15,
share_all=True,
cbar_location="right",
cbar_mode="single",
cbar_size="7%",
cbar_pad=0.15,
)
# Add data to image grid
for ax in grid:
im = ax.imshow(np.random.random((10,10)), vmin=0, vmax=1)
# Colorbar
ax.cax.colorbar(im)
ax.cax.toggle_label(True)
#plt.tight_layout() # Works, but may still require rect paramater to keep colorbar labels visible
plt.show()
Using make_axes is even easier and gives a better result. It also provides possibilities to customise the positioning of the colorbar.
Also note the option of subplots to share x and y axes.
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib as mpl
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, sharex=True, sharey=True)
for ax in axes.flat:
im = ax.imshow(np.random.random((10,10)), vmin=0, vmax=1)
cax,kw = mpl.colorbar.make_axes([ax for ax in axes.flat])
plt.colorbar(im, cax=cax, **kw)
plt.show()
As a beginner who stumbled across this thread, I'd like to add a python-for-dummies adaptation of abevieiramota's very neat answer (because I'm at the level that I had to look up 'ravel' to work out what their code was doing):
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, ((ax1,ax2,ax3),(ax4,ax5,ax6)) = plt.subplots(2,3)
axlist = [ax1,ax2,ax3,ax4,ax5,ax6]
first = ax1.imshow(np.random.random((10,10)), vmin=0, vmax=1)
third = ax3.imshow(np.random.random((12,12)), vmin=0, vmax=1)
fig.colorbar(first, ax=axlist)
plt.show()
Much less pythonic, much easier for noobs like me to see what's actually happening here.
Shared colormap and colorbar
This is for the more complex case where the values are not just between 0 and 1; the cmap needs to be shared instead of just using the last one.
import numpy as np
from matplotlib.colors import Normalize
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.cm as cm
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)
cmap=cm.get_cmap('viridis')
normalizer=Normalize(0,4)
im=cm.ScalarMappable(norm=normalizer)
for i,ax in enumerate(axes.flat):
ax.imshow(i+np.random.random((10,10)),cmap=cmap,norm=normalizer)
ax.set_title(str(i))
fig.colorbar(im, ax=axes.ravel().tolist())
plt.show()
As pointed out in other answers, the idea is usually to define an axes for the colorbar to reside in. There are various ways of doing so; one that hasn't been mentionned yet would be to directly specify the colorbar axes at subplot creation with plt.subplots(). The advantage is that the axes position does not need to be manually set and in all cases with automatic aspect the colorbar will be exactly the same height as the subplots. Even in many cases where images are used the result will be satisfying as shown below.
When using plt.subplots(), the use of gridspec_kw argument allows to make the colorbar axes much smaller than the other axes.
fig, (ax, ax2, cax) = plt.subplots(ncols=3,figsize=(5.5,3),
gridspec_kw={"width_ratios":[1,1, 0.05]})
Example:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np; np.random.seed(1)
fig, (ax, ax2, cax) = plt.subplots(ncols=3,figsize=(5.5,3),
gridspec_kw={"width_ratios":[1,1, 0.05]})
fig.subplots_adjust(wspace=0.3)
im = ax.imshow(np.random.rand(11,8), vmin=0, vmax=1)
im2 = ax2.imshow(np.random.rand(11,8), vmin=0, vmax=1)
ax.set_ylabel("y label")
fig.colorbar(im, cax=cax)
plt.show()
This works well, if the plots' aspect is autoscaled or the images are shrunk due to their aspect in the width direction (as in the above). If, however, the images are wider then high, the result would look as follows, which might be undesired.
A solution to fix the colorbar height to the subplot height would be to use mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1.inset_locator.InsetPosition to set the colorbar axes relative to the image subplot axes.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np; np.random.seed(1)
from mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1.inset_locator import InsetPosition
fig, (ax, ax2, cax) = plt.subplots(ncols=3,figsize=(7,3),
gridspec_kw={"width_ratios":[1,1, 0.05]})
fig.subplots_adjust(wspace=0.3)
im = ax.imshow(np.random.rand(11,16), vmin=0, vmax=1)
im2 = ax2.imshow(np.random.rand(11,16), vmin=0, vmax=1)
ax.set_ylabel("y label")
ip = InsetPosition(ax2, [1.05,0,0.05,1])
cax.set_axes_locator(ip)
fig.colorbar(im, cax=cax, ax=[ax,ax2])
plt.show()
New in matplotlib 3.4.0
Shared colorbars can now be implemented using subfigures:
New Figure.subfigures and Figure.add_subfigure allow ... localized figure artists (e.g., colorbars and suptitles) that only pertain to each subfigure.
The matplotlib gallery includes demos on how to plot subfigures.
Here is a minimal example with 2 subfigures, each with a shared colorbar:
fig = plt.figure(constrained_layout=True)
(subfig_l, subfig_r) = fig.subfigures(nrows=1, ncols=2)
axes_l = subfig_l.subplots(nrows=1, ncols=2, sharey=True)
for ax in axes_l:
im = ax.imshow(np.random.random((10, 10)), vmin=0, vmax=1)
# shared colorbar for left subfigure
subfig_l.colorbar(im, ax=axes_l, location='bottom')
axes_r = subfig_r.subplots(nrows=3, ncols=1, sharex=True)
for ax in axes_r:
mesh = ax.pcolormesh(np.random.randn(30, 30), vmin=-2.5, vmax=2.5)
# shared colorbar for right subfigure
subfig_r.colorbar(mesh, ax=axes_r)
The solution of using a list of axes by abevieiramota works very well until you use only one row of images, as pointed out in the comments. Using a reasonable aspect ratio for figsize helps, but is still far from perfect. For example:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=1, ncols=3, figsize=(9.75, 3))
for ax in axes.flat:
im = ax.imshow(np.random.random((10,10)), vmin=0, vmax=1)
fig.colorbar(im, ax=axes.ravel().tolist())
plt.show()
The colorbar function provides the shrink parameter which is a scaling factor for the size of the colorbar axes. It does require some manual trial and error. For example:
fig.colorbar(im, ax=axes.ravel().tolist(), shrink=0.75)
To add to #abevieiramota's excellent answer, you can get the euqivalent of tight_layout with constrained_layout. You will still get large horizontal gaps if you use imshow instead of pcolormesh because of the 1:1 aspect ratio imposed by imshow.
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, constrained_layout=True)
for ax in axes.flat:
im = ax.pcolormesh(np.random.random((10,10)), vmin=0, vmax=1)
fig.colorbar(im, ax=axes.flat)
plt.show()
I noticed that almost every solution posted involved ax.imshow(im, ...) and did not normalize the colors displayed to the colorbar for the multiple subfigures. The im mappable is taken from the last instance, but what if the values of the multiple im-s are different? (I'm assuming these mappables are treated in the same way that the contour-sets and surface-sets are treated.) I have an example using a 3d surface plot below that creates two colorbars for a 2x2 subplot (one colorbar per one row). Although the question asks explicitly for a different arrangement, I think the example helps clarify some things. I haven't found a way to do this using plt.subplots(...) yet because of the 3D axes unfortunately.
If only I could position the colorbars in a better way... (There is probably a much better way to do this, but at least it should be not too difficult to follow.)
import matplotlib
from matplotlib import cm
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D
cmap = 'plasma'
ncontours = 5
def get_data(row, col):
""" get X, Y, Z, and plot number of subplot
Z > 0 for top row, Z < 0 for bottom row """
if row == 0:
x = np.linspace(1, 10, 10, dtype=int)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(x, x)
Z = np.sqrt(X**2 + Y**2)
if col == 0:
pnum = 1
else:
pnum = 2
elif row == 1:
x = np.linspace(1, 10, 10, dtype=int)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(x, x)
Z = -np.sqrt(X**2 + Y**2)
if col == 0:
pnum = 3
else:
pnum = 4
print("\nPNUM: {}, Zmin = {}, Zmax = {}\n".format(pnum, np.min(Z), np.max(Z)))
return X, Y, Z, pnum
fig = plt.figure()
nrows, ncols = 2, 2
zz = []
axes = []
for row in range(nrows):
for col in range(ncols):
X, Y, Z, pnum = get_data(row, col)
ax = fig.add_subplot(nrows, ncols, pnum, projection='3d')
ax.set_title('row = {}, col = {}'.format(row, col))
fhandle = ax.plot_surface(X, Y, Z, cmap=cmap)
zz.append(Z)
axes.append(ax)
## get full range of Z data as flat list for top and bottom rows
zz_top = zz[0].reshape(-1).tolist() + zz[1].reshape(-1).tolist()
zz_btm = zz[2].reshape(-1).tolist() + zz[3].reshape(-1).tolist()
## get top and bottom axes
ax_top = [axes[0], axes[1]]
ax_btm = [axes[2], axes[3]]
## normalize colors to minimum and maximum values of dataset
norm_top = matplotlib.colors.Normalize(vmin=min(zz_top), vmax=max(zz_top))
norm_btm = matplotlib.colors.Normalize(vmin=min(zz_btm), vmax=max(zz_btm))
cmap = cm.get_cmap(cmap, ncontours) # number of colors on colorbar
mtop = cm.ScalarMappable(cmap=cmap, norm=norm_top)
mbtm = cm.ScalarMappable(cmap=cmap, norm=norm_btm)
for m in (mtop, mbtm):
m.set_array([])
# ## create cax to draw colorbar in
# cax_top = fig.add_axes([0.9, 0.55, 0.05, 0.4])
# cax_btm = fig.add_axes([0.9, 0.05, 0.05, 0.4])
cbar_top = fig.colorbar(mtop, ax=ax_top, orientation='vertical', shrink=0.75, pad=0.2) #, cax=cax_top)
cbar_top.set_ticks(np.linspace(min(zz_top), max(zz_top), ncontours))
cbar_btm = fig.colorbar(mbtm, ax=ax_btm, orientation='vertical', shrink=0.75, pad=0.2) #, cax=cax_btm)
cbar_btm.set_ticks(np.linspace(min(zz_btm), max(zz_btm), ncontours))
plt.show()
plt.close(fig)
## orientation of colorbar = 'horizontal' if done by column
This topic is well covered but I still would like to propose another approach in a slightly different philosophy.
It is a bit more complex to set-up but it allow (in my opinion) a bit more flexibility. For example, one can play with the respective ratios of each subplots / colorbar:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from matplotlib.gridspec import GridSpec
# Define number of rows and columns you want in your figure
nrow = 2
ncol = 3
# Make a new figure
fig = plt.figure(constrained_layout=True)
# Design your figure properties
widths = [3,4,5,1]
gs = GridSpec(nrow, ncol + 1, figure=fig, width_ratios=widths)
# Fill your figure with desired plots
axes = []
for i in range(nrow):
for j in range(ncol):
axes.append(fig.add_subplot(gs[i, j]))
im = axes[-1].pcolormesh(np.random.random((10,10)))
# Shared colorbar
axes.append(fig.add_subplot(gs[:, ncol]))
fig.colorbar(im, cax=axes[-1])
plt.show()
The answers above are great, but most of them use the fig.colobar() method applied to a fig object. This example shows how to use the plt.colobar() function, applied directly to pyplot:
def shared_colorbar_example():
fig, axs = plt.subplots(nrows=3, ncols=3)
for ax in axs.flat:
plt.sca(ax)
color = np.random.random((10))
plt.scatter(range(10), range(10), c=color, cmap='viridis', vmin=0, vmax=1)
plt.colorbar(ax=axs.ravel().tolist(), shrink=0.6)
plt.show()
shared_colorbar_example()
Since most answers above demonstrated usage on 2D matrices, I went with a simple scatter plot. The shrink keyword is optional and resizes the colorbar.
If vmin and vmax are not specified this approach will automatically analyze all of the subplots for the minimum and maximum value to be used on the colorbar. The above approaches when using fig.colorbar(im) scan only the image passed as argument for min and max values of the colorbar.
Result:
How can I plot with different palettes in subplots of the same figure? In the example below, the generation of the plots is delayed. So, only the last palette is used to generate plots. Though I need the subplots generated with a different palettes.
x = np.arange(10)
pal = sns.color_palette("rainbow", 12)
sns.set_palette(pal)
subplot(2, 1, 1)
for i in range(4):
plot(x, i*np.sin(x))
subplot(2, 1, 2)
pal = sns.color_palette("Set1", 12)
sns.set_palette(pal)
for i in range(4):
plot(x, i*np.cos(x))
tight_layout()
You need to set the palette before creating the subplot. This is because the color cycle is a property of the axes. The axes will take the current property cycler from the rcParams at creation time. So set_palette, which changes the property cycler, needs to be called beforehand.
import numpy as np
import seaborn as sns
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
x = np.arange(10)
# First subplot
pal1 = sns.color_palette("rainbow", 12)
sns.set_palette(pal1)
plt.subplot(2, 1, 1)
for i in range(4):
plt.plot(x, i*np.sin(x))
# Second subplot
pal2 = sns.color_palette("Set1", 12)
sns.set_palette(pal2)
plt.subplot(2, 1, 2)
for i in range(4):
plt.plot(x, i*np.cos(x))
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()
Looking at the matplotlib documentation, it seems the standard way to add an AxesSubplot to a Figure is to use Figure.add_subplot:
from matplotlib import pyplot
fig = pyplot.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(1,1,1)
ax.hist( some params .... )
I would like to be able to create AxesSubPlot-like objects independently of the figure, so I can use them in different figures. Something like
fig = pyplot.figure()
histoA = some_axes_subplot_maker.hist( some params ..... )
histoA = some_axes_subplot_maker.hist( some other params ..... )
# make one figure with both plots
fig.add_subaxes(histo1, 211)
fig.add_subaxes(histo1, 212)
fig2 = pyplot.figure()
# make a figure with the first plot only
fig2.add_subaxes(histo1, 111)
Is this possible in matplotlib and if so, how can I do this?
Update: I have not managed to decouple creation of Axes and Figures, but following examples in the answers below, can easily re-use previously created axes in new or olf Figure instances. This can be illustrated with a simple function:
def plot_axes(ax, fig=None, geometry=(1,1,1)):
if fig is None:
fig = plt.figure()
if ax.get_geometry() != geometry :
ax.change_geometry(*geometry)
ax = fig.axes.append(ax)
return fig
Typically, you just pass the axes instance to a function.
For example:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
def main():
x = np.linspace(0, 6 * np.pi, 100)
fig1, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(nrows=2)
plot(x, np.sin(x), ax1)
plot(x, np.random.random(100), ax2)
fig2 = plt.figure()
plot(x, np.cos(x))
plt.show()
def plot(x, y, ax=None):
if ax is None:
ax = plt.gca()
line, = ax.plot(x, y, 'go')
ax.set_ylabel('Yabba dabba do!')
return line
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
To respond to your question, you could always do something like this:
def subplot(data, fig=None, index=111):
if fig is None:
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(index)
ax.plot(data)
Also, you can simply add an axes instance to another figure:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig1, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(range(10))
fig2 = plt.figure()
fig2.axes.append(ax)
plt.show()
Resizing it to match other subplot "shapes" is also possible, but it's going to quickly become more trouble than it's worth. The approach of just passing around a figure or axes instance (or list of instances) is much simpler for complex cases, in my experience...
The following shows how to "move" an axes from one figure to another. This is the intended functionality of #JoeKington's last example, which in newer matplotlib versions is not working anymore, because axes cannot live in several figures at once.
You would first need to remove the axes from the first figure, then append it to the next figure and give it some position to live in.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig1, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(range(10))
ax.remove()
fig2 = plt.figure()
ax.figure=fig2
fig2.axes.append(ax)
fig2.add_axes(ax)
dummy = fig2.add_subplot(111)
ax.set_position(dummy.get_position())
dummy.remove()
plt.close(fig1)
plt.show()
For line plots, you can deal with the Line2D objects themselves:
fig1 = pylab.figure()
ax1 = fig1.add_subplot(111)
lines = ax1.plot(scipy.randn(10))
fig2 = pylab.figure()
ax2 = fig2.add_subplot(111)
ax2.add_line(lines[0])
TL;DR based partly on Joe nice answer.
Opt.1: fig.add_subplot()
def fcn_return_plot():
return plt.plot(np.random.random((10,)))
n = 4
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(n*3,2))
#fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, n, sharey=True, figsize=(n*3,2)) # also works
for index in list(range(n)):
fig.add_subplot(1, n, index + 1)
fcn_return_plot()
plt.title(f"plot: {index}", fontsize=20)
Opt.2: pass ax[index] to a function that returns ax[index].plot()
def fcn_return_plot_input_ax(ax=None):
if ax is None:
ax = plt.gca()
return ax.plot(np.random.random((10,)))
n = 4
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, n, sharey=True, figsize=(n*3,2))
for index in list(range(n)):
fcn_return_plot_input_ax(ax[index])
ax[index].set_title(f"plot: {index}", fontsize=20)
Outputs respect.
Note: Opt.1 plt.title() changed in opt.2 to ax[index].set_title(). Find more Matplotlib Gotchas in Van der Plas book.
To go deeper in the rabbit hole. Extending my previous answer, one could return a whole ax, and not ax.plot() only. E.g.
If dataframe had 100 tests of 20 types (here id):
dfA = pd.DataFrame(np.random.random((100,3)), columns = ['y1', 'y2', 'y3'])
dfB = pd.DataFrame(np.repeat(list(range(20)),5), columns = ['id'])
dfC = dfA.join(dfB)
And the plot function (this is the key of this whole answer):
def plot_feature_each_id(df, feature, id_range=[], ax=None, legend_bool=False):
feature = df[feature]
if not len(id_range): id_range=set(df['id'])
legend_arr = []
for k in id_range:
pass
mask = (df['id'] == k)
ax.plot(feature[mask])
legend_arr.append(f"id: {k}")
if legend_bool: ax.legend(legend_arr)
return ax
We can achieve:
feature_arr = dfC.drop('id',1).columns
id_range= np.random.randint(len(set(dfC.id)), size=(10,))
n = len(feature_arr)
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, n, figsize=(n*6,4));
for i,k in enumerate(feature_arr):
plot_feature_each_id(dfC, k, np.sort(id_range), ax[i], legend_bool=(i+1==n))
ax[i].set_title(k, fontsize=20)
ax[i].set_xlabel("test nr. (id)", fontsize=20)