Develop Reference

mpldatacursor Scatter Plot point colour information

I have a scatter plot with a colour scaling where each plotted point is associated with another value. This is a lazy workaround to make a "countour plot" style image without having to regularise data points. To make analysis easier I am using mpldatacursor to generate interactive annotations on the plot, and I have a custom formatter which is displaying co-ordinates just fine:
datacursor(scatter,
formatter='$T=${x:.2f}$^\circ$C\n$I=${y:.2f}$\,$mA\n$\Delta F=$$\,$THz'.format,
draggable=True)
but what I really want is for that third line, $\Delta F=$$\,$THz, to include a statement that returns the value associated with the colour map at that point. Does anyone know what kwargs I should use to achieve this?
EDIT: MWE
from mpldatacursor import datacursor
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
scatter = ax.scatter(np.random.random(100),
np.random.random(100),
c=np.random.random(100),
s=0.5)
cb = plt.colorbar(scatter, label="Colour")
datacursor(scatter,
formatter='$T=${x:.2f}$^\circ$C\n$I=${y:.2f}$\,$mA\n$\Delta F=$$\,$THz'.format,
draggable=True)

You will need to convert the index of the picked point to the value to be shown. Therefore the scatter's colors should be publicly available, such that the ind of the pick_event can index it and return the value at the picked point.
from mpldatacursor import datacursor
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
x = np.random.random(100)
y = np.random.random(100)
c = np.random.random(100)
scatter = ax.scatter(x, y, c=c, s=1)
cb = plt.colorbar(scatter, label="Colour")
def fmt(**dic):
tx = '$T=${x:.2f}$^\circ$C\n$I=${y:.2f}$\,$mA\n$\Delta F=${z:.2f}$\,$THz'
dic.update({"z" : c[dic["ind"][0]]})
return tx.format(**dic)
datacursor(scatter, formatter=fmt, draggable=True)
plt.show()

Setting colorbar to show values outside of data range in matplotlib

I am trying to create a figure in which the colorbar will extend beyond the data range (go higher than the max value of data). The ultimate purpose is that I need to plot a series of images (as time progresses) of model output, and each hour is stored in a separate file. I would like the colorbar for all the figures to be the same, so that they can be joined into an animation.
Here is a sample script:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
x = np.arange(0, 360, 1.5)
y = np.arange(-90, 90, 1.5)
lon, lat = np.meshgrid(x, y)
noise = np.random.random(lon.shape) # values in range [0, 1)
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
plt.hold(True)
plt.contourf(lon, lat, noise)
plt.colorbar()
This produces the following figure:
I've been trying to set the limits of the colorbar to values outside the data range (for example, from -1. to 2.) using two methods that I've found online:
Setting vmin=-1 and vmax=2 inside the plotting line:
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
plt.hold(True)
plt.contourf(lon, lat, noise, vmin=-1., vmax=2.)
plt.colorbar()
This seems to only change the colors displayed, so that the first color in the colormap would correspond to -1 and the last one to 2, but it does not extend the colorbar to show those values (left figure in link below).
The other one was to try and enforce ticks in the colorbar to extend to that range:
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
plt.hold(True)
plt.contourf(lon, lat, noise)
plt.colorbar(ticks=np.arange(-1,2.1, .2))
This results in tick position as defined, but only for the range in which there's data, i.e., the colorbar still doesn't extend from -1 to 2 (middle figure in link below).
Does anyone know how I would get it to do what I want? Something like the right figure at this link: http://orca.rsmas.miami.edu/~ajdas1/SOF/n.html

For most 2D plotting function (such as imshow, pcolor, etc.) setting vmin and vmax does the job. However, contourf (and also contour) take the levels at which you ask it to draw the contours into account when mapping the colors:
If you don't specify the levels argument, then the function automatically generates 10 equally spaced levels from the minimal to maximal value of your data. So to achieve what you want (consistency over varying input data) you have to specify the levels explicitly:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
# generate data
x = np.arange(0, 360, 1.5)
y = np.arange(-90, 90, 1.5)
lon, lat = np.meshgrid(x, y)
noise = np.random.random(lon.shape)
# specify levels from vmim to vmax
levels = np.arange(-1, 2.1, 0.2)
# plot
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
plt.contourf(lon, lat, noise, levels=levels)
plt.colorbar(ticks=levels)
plt.show()
Result:

Colorbar limits are not respecting set vmin/vmax in plt.contourf. How can I more explicitly set the colorbar limits? gives a good example to solve this problem.
These can be done if the colorbars of a series of images share a same ScalarMappable instance, but not the corresponding ContourSet instance which is created by each plt.contourf().
More details in https://matplotlib.org/3.2.1/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.figure.Figure.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.colorbar
We can solve the problem like this:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.cm as cm
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
m0=ax.contourf(lon, lat, noise, vmin=-1., vmax=2.)
m = plt.cm.ScalarMappable(cmap=cm.coolwarm)
m.set_clim(-1, 2)
fig.colorbar(m,ax=ax)
Instead of using m0 (QuadContourSet instance created by contourf), we use m (ScalarMappable instance) in fig.colorbar(), because colorbar is used to describe the mappable parameter.
https://matplotlib.org/3.2.1/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.figure.Figure.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.colorbar
clim in m.set_clim should be matched to vmin/vmax in contourf.

How to plot contourf and my graph in the same figure

I have a figure showing the contourf plot and another showing a plot i've made earlier and I want to plot both on the same figure what should I do?
Here is the code of my contourf plot:
import pylab as pl
from pylab import *
import xlrd
import math
import itertools
from matplotlib import collections as mc
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import copy as dc
import pyexcel
from pyexcel.ext import xlsx
import decimal
x_list = linspace(0, 99, 100)
y_list = linspace(0, 99, 100)
X, Y = meshgrid(x_list, y_list, indexing='xy')
Z = [[0 for x in range(len(x_list))] for x in range(len(y_list))]
for each_axes in range(len(Z)):
for each_point in range(len(Z[each_axes])):
Z[len(Z)-1-each_axes][each_point] = power_at_each_point(each_point, each_axes)
figure()
CP2 = contourf(X, Y, Z, cmap=plt.get_cmap('Reds'))
colorbar(CP2)
title('Coverage Plot')
xlabel('x (m)')
ylabel('y (m)')
show()
This is the code of my previously plotted plot:
lc = mc.LineCollection(lines, linewidths=3)
fig, ax = pl.subplots()
ax.add_collection(lc)
ax.autoscale()
ax.margins(0.05)
#The code blow is just for drawing the final plot of the building.
Nodes = xlrd.open_workbook(Node_file_location)
sheet = Nodes.sheet_by_index(0)
Node_Order_Counter = range(1, sheet.nrows + 1)
In_Node_Order_Counter = 0
for counter in range(len(Node_Positions_Ascending)):
plt.plot(Node_Positions_Ascending[counter][0], Node_Positions_Ascending[counter][1], marker='o', color='r',
markersize=6)
pl.text(Node_Positions_Ascending[counter][0], Node_Positions_Ascending[counter][1],
str(Node_Order_Counter[In_Node_Order_Counter]),
color="black", fontsize=15)
In_Node_Order_Counter += 1
#Plotting the different node positions on our plot & numbering them
pl.show()

Without your data we can't see what the plot is supposed to look like, but I have some general recommendations.
Don't use pylab. And if you absolutely must use it, use it within its namespace, and don't do from pylab import *. It makes for very sloppy code - for example, linspace and meshgrid are actually from numpy, but it's hard to tell that when you use pylab.
For complicated plotting, don't even use pyplot. Instead, use the direct object plotting interface. For example, to make a normal plot on top of a contour plot, (such as you want to do) you could do the following:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
x = np.linspace(1, 5, 20)
y = np.linspace(2, 5, 20)
z = x[:,np.newaxis] * (y[np.newaxis,:])**2
xx, yy = np.meshgrid(x, y)
ax.contourf(xx, yy, z, cmap='Reds')
ax.plot(x, 0.2*y**2)
plt.show()
Notice that I only used pyplot to create the figure and axes, and show them. The actual plotting is done using the AxesSubplot object.

Scatter plot and Color mapping in Python

I have a range of points x and y stored in numpy arrays.
Those represent x(t) and y(t) where t=0...T-1
I am plotting a scatter plot using
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.scatter(x,y)
plt.show()
I would like to have a colormap representing the time (therefore coloring the points depending on the index in the numpy arrays)
What is the easiest way to do so?

Here is an example
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
x = np.random.rand(100)
y = np.random.rand(100)
t = np.arange(100)
plt.scatter(x, y, c=t)
plt.show()
Here you are setting the color based on the index, t, which is just an array of [1, 2, ..., 100].
Perhaps an easier-to-understand example is the slightly simpler
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
x = np.arange(100)
y = x
t = x
plt.scatter(x, y, c=t)
plt.show()
Note that the array you pass as c doesn't need to have any particular order or type, i.e. it doesn't need to be sorted or integers as in these examples. The plotting routine will scale the colormap such that the minimum/maximum values in c correspond to the bottom/top of the colormap.
Colormaps
You can change the colormap by adding
import matplotlib.cm as cm
plt.scatter(x, y, c=t, cmap=cm.cmap_name)
Importing matplotlib.cm is optional as you can call colormaps as cmap="cmap_name" just as well. There is a reference page of colormaps showing what each looks like. Also know that you can reverse a colormap by simply calling it as cmap_name_r. So either
plt.scatter(x, y, c=t, cmap=cm.cmap_name_r)
# or
plt.scatter(x, y, c=t, cmap="cmap_name_r")
will work. Examples are "jet_r" or cm.plasma_r. Here's an example with the new 1.5 colormap viridis:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
x = np.arange(100)
y = x
t = x
fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(1, 2)
ax1.scatter(x, y, c=t, cmap='viridis')
ax2.scatter(x, y, c=t, cmap='viridis_r')
plt.show()
Colorbars
You can add a colorbar by using
plt.scatter(x, y, c=t, cmap='viridis')
plt.colorbar()
plt.show()
Note that if you are using figures and subplots explicitly (e.g. fig, ax = plt.subplots() or ax = fig.add_subplot(111)), adding a colorbar can be a bit more involved. Good examples can be found here for a single subplot colorbar and here for 2 subplots 1 colorbar.

To add to wflynny's answer above, you can find the available colormaps here
Example:
import matplotlib.cm as cm
plt.scatter(x, y, c=t, cmap=cm.jet)
or alternatively,
plt.scatter(x, y, c=t, cmap='jet')

Subplot Colorbar
For subplots with scatter, you can trick a colorbar onto your axes by building the "mappable" with the help of a secondary figure and then adding it to your original plot.
As a continuation of the above example:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
x = np.arange(10)
y = x
t = x
fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(1, 2)
ax1.scatter(x, y, c=t, cmap='viridis')
ax2.scatter(x, y, c=t, cmap='viridis_r')
# Build your secondary mirror axes:
fig2, (ax3, ax4) = plt.subplots(1, 2)
# Build maps that parallel the color-coded data
# NOTE 1: imshow requires a 2-D array as input
# NOTE 2: You must use the same cmap tag as above for it match
map1 = ax3.imshow(np.stack([t, t]),cmap='viridis')
map2 = ax4.imshow(np.stack([t, t]),cmap='viridis_r')
# Add your maps onto your original figure/axes
fig.colorbar(map1, ax=ax1)
fig.colorbar(map2, ax=ax2)
plt.show()
Note that you will also output a secondary figure that you can ignore.

Single colorbar for multiple subplots
sometimes it is preferable to have a single colorbar to indicate data values visualised on multiple subplots.
In this case, a Normalize() object needs to be created using the minimum and maximum data values across both plots.
Then a colorbar object can be created from a ScalarMappable() object, which maps between scalar values and colors.
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
x = np.arange(10)
y = x
t1 = x # Colour data for first plot
t2 = 2*x # Color data for second plot
all_data = np.concatenate([t1, t2])
# Create custom Normalise object using the man and max data values across both subplots to ensure colors are consistent on both plots
norm = plt.Normalize(np.min(all_data), np.max(all_data))
fig, axs = plt.subplots(1, 2)
axs[0].scatter(x, y, c=t1, cmap='viridis', norm=norm)
axs[1].scatter(x**2, y, c=t2, cmap='viridis', norm=norm)
# Create the colorbar
smap = plt.cm.ScalarMappable(cmap='viridis', norm=norm)
cbar = fig.colorbar(smap, ax=axs, fraction=0.1, shrink = 0.8)
cbar.ax.tick_params(labelsize=11)
cbar.ax.set_ylabel('T', rotation=0, labelpad = 15, fontdict = {"size":14})
plt.show()
subplots_colorbar

matplotlib colorbar for scatter

I'm working with data that has the data has 3 plotting parameters: x,y,c. How do you create a custom color value for a scatter plot?
Extending this example I'm trying to do:
import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
cm = matplotlib.cm.get_cmap('RdYlBu')
colors=[cm(1.*i/20) for i in range(20)]
xy = range(20)
plt.subplot(111)
colorlist=[colors[x/2] for x in xy] #actually some other non-linear relationship
plt.scatter(xy, xy, c=colorlist, s=35, vmin=0, vmax=20)
plt.colorbar()
plt.show()
but the result is TypeError: You must first set_array for mappable

From the matplotlib docs on scatter 1:
cmap is only used if c is an array of floats
So colorlist needs to be a list of floats rather than a list of tuples as you have it now.
plt.colorbar() wants a mappable object, like the CircleCollection that plt.scatter() returns.
vmin and vmax can then control the limits of your colorbar. Things outside vmin/vmax get the colors of the endpoints.
How does this work for you?
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
cm = plt.cm.get_cmap('RdYlBu')
xy = range(20)
z = xy
sc = plt.scatter(xy, xy, c=z, vmin=0, vmax=20, s=35, cmap=cm)
plt.colorbar(sc)
plt.show()

Here is the OOP way of adding a colorbar:
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
im = ax.scatter(x, y, c=c)
fig.colorbar(im, ax=ax)

If you're looking to scatter by two variables and color by the third, Altair can be a great choice.
Creating the dataset
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame(40*np.random.randn(10, 3), columns=['A', 'B','C'])
Altair plot
from altair import *
Chart(df).mark_circle().encode(x='A',y='B', color='C').configure_cell(width=200, height=150)
Plot