How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

Note

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pyplot.subplots creates a figure and a grid of subplots with a single call, while providing reasonable control over how the individual plots are created. For more advanced use cases you can use GridSpec for a more general subplot layout or Figure.add_subplot for adding subplots at arbitrary locations within the figure.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

# Some example data to display
x = np.linspace(0, 2 * np.pi, 400)
y = np.sin(x ** 2)

A figure with just one subplot#

subplots() without arguments returns a Figure and a single Axes.

This is actually the simplest and recommended way of creating a single Figure and Axes.

How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

Text(0.5, 1.0, 'A single plot')

Stacking subplots in one direction#

The first two optional arguments of pyplot.subplots define the number of rows and columns of the subplot grid.

When stacking in one direction only, the returned axs is a 1D numpy array containing the list of created Axes.

How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

[<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f2d00efd510>]

If you are creating just a few Axes, it's handy to unpack them immediately to dedicated variables for each Axes. That way, we can use ax1 instead of the more verbose axs[0].

How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

[<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f2d00a95b70>]

To obtain side-by-side subplots, pass parameters 1, 2 for one row and two columns.

How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

[<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f2cfb43d330>]

Stacking subplots in two directions#

When stacking in two directions, the returned axs is a 2D NumPy array.

If you have to set parameters for each subplot it's handy to iterate over all subplots in a 2D grid using for ax in axs.flat:.

fig, axs = plt.subplots(2, 2)
axs[0, 0].plot(x, y)
axs[0, 0].set_title('Axis [0, 0]')
axs[0, 1].plot(x, y, 'tab:orange')
axs[0, 1].set_title('Axis [0, 1]')
axs[1, 0].plot(x, -y, 'tab:green')
axs[1, 0].set_title('Axis [1, 0]')
axs[1, 1].plot(x, -y, 'tab:red')
axs[1, 1].set_title('Axis [1, 1]')

for ax in axs.flat:
    ax.set(xlabel='x-label', ylabel='y-label')

# Hide x labels and tick labels for top plots and y ticks for right plots.
for ax in axs.flat:
    ax.label_outer()

How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

You can use tuple-unpacking also in 2D to assign all subplots to dedicated variables:

fig, ((ax1, ax2), (ax3, ax4)) = plt.subplots(2, 2)
fig.suptitle('Sharing x per column, y per row')
ax1.plot(x, y)
ax2.plot(x, y**2, 'tab:orange')
ax3.plot(x, -y, 'tab:green')
ax4.plot(x, -y**2, 'tab:red')

for ax in fig.get_axes():
    ax.label_outer()

How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

Sharing axes#

By default, each Axes is scaled individually. Thus, if the ranges are different the tick values of the subplots do not align.

How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

[<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f2cfb007250>]

You can use sharex or sharey to align the horizontal or vertical axis.

How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

[<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f2cfa993370>]

Setting sharex or sharey to True enables global sharing across the whole grid, i.e. also the y-axes of vertically stacked subplots have the same scale when using sharey=True.

How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

[<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f2cfab12980>]

For subplots that are sharing axes one set of tick labels is enough. Tick labels of inner Axes are automatically removed by sharex and sharey. Still there remains an unused empty space between the subplots.

To precisely control the positioning of the subplots, one can explicitly create a GridSpec with Figure.add_gridspec, and then call its subplots method. For example, we can reduce the height between vertical subplots using add_gridspec(hspace=0).

label_outer is a handy method to remove labels and ticks from subplots that are not at the edge of the grid.

How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

Apart from True and False, both sharex and sharey accept the values 'row' and 'col' to share the values only per row or column.

fig = plt.figure()
gs = fig.add_gridspec(2, 2, hspace=0, wspace=0)
(ax1, ax2), (ax3, ax4) = gs.subplots(sharex='col', sharey='row')
fig.suptitle('Sharing x per column, y per row')
ax1.plot(x, y)
ax2.plot(x, y**2, 'tab:orange')
ax3.plot(x + 1, -y, 'tab:green')
ax4.plot(x + 2, -y**2, 'tab:red')

for ax in axs.flat:
    ax.label_outer()

How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

If you want a more complex sharing structure, you can first create the grid of axes with no sharing, and then call axes.Axes.sharex or axes.Axes.sharey to add sharing info a posteriori.

fig, axs = plt.subplots(2, 2)
axs[0, 0].plot(x, y)
axs[0, 0].set_title("main")
axs[1, 0].plot(x, y**2)
axs[1, 0].set_title("shares x with main")
axs[1, 0].sharex(axs[0, 0])
axs[0, 1].plot(x + 1, y + 1)
axs[0, 1].set_title("unrelated")
axs[1, 1].plot(x + 2, y + 2)
axs[1, 1].set_title("also unrelated")
fig.tight_layout()

How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

Polar axes#

The parameter subplot_kw of pyplot.subplots controls the subplot properties (see also Figure.add_subplot). In particular, this can be used to create a grid of polar Axes.

How do i plot two graphs in python matplotlib?

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How do I show multiple graphs in Matplotlib?

To draw multiple plots using the subplot() function from the pyplot module, you need to perform two steps: First, you need to call the subplot() function with three parameters: (1) the number of rows for your grid, (2) the number of columns for your grid, and (3) the location or axis for plotting.

How do you plot two graphs in Python?

Create x, y1 and y2 data points using numpy..
Add a subplot to the current figure at index 1..
Plot curve 1 using x and y1..
Add a subplot to the current figure at index 2..
Plot curve 2 using x and y2..
To display the figure, use show() method..

How do you plot two graphs side by side in Python?

Creating x, y1, y2 points using numpy..
With nrows = 1, ncols = 2, index = 1, add subplot to the current figure, using the subplot() method..
Plot the line using x and y1 points, using the plot() method..
Set up the title, label for X and Y axes for Figure 1, using plt..

How do you plot multiple graphs on different figures in Python?

Create a new figure, or activate an existing figure, with the window title “Welcome to figure 1”..
Draw a line using plot() method, over the current figure..
Create a new figure, or activate an existing figure, with the window title “Welcome to figure 2”..
Draw a line using plot() method, over the current figure..