4 ms·

An Introduction to Scientific Python – Matplotlib

49 points by Jmoir 10y ago

rsrsrs86 10y ago
Data to ink here is too low...
wodenokoto 10y ago
Is there a good introduction to using the object oriented interface to matplotlib? I sometimes see it in examples and referenced in the documentation, but I can't really wrap my head around it.
- Jmoir 10y ago
  Hmmm, I did a bit of searching and didn't find anything I particularly liked, I guess I'll add this to the list of posts I need to write. Nevertheless, I did find something. Check out these links: http://matplotlib.org/users/artists.html http://matplotlib.org/users/artists.html http://matplotlib.org/users/transforms_tutorial.html http://matplotlib.org/users/transforms_tutorial.html http://matplotlib.org/users/path_tutorial.html http://matplotlib.org/users/path_tutorial.html http://matplotlib.org/users/event_handling.html http://matplotlib.org/users/event_handling.html
- xtiansimon 10y ago
  Anatomy of MatPlotLib is informative and clear. But, alas, not the oop tutorial you're looking for. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MKucn8NtVeI&autoplay=1 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MKucn8NtVeI&autoplay=1
anc84 10y ago
I needed pixel perfect plots for visualising raster data and did not manage to make it render that. Felt similar to LaTeX: Great if you like what it does by default but don't you dare want something reasonably different. :\
- glup 10y ago
  Similar sentiments here. I get slightly further with ggplot2 but still end up fixing stuff manually in Illustrator which adds significant time. Anyone know 1) a more customizable plotting library or 2) a way to apply manual changes to new input pdfs? Biggest sticking points for me are overlapping labels and compositing multiple figures
  - Fomite 10y ago
    Buying a copy of Illustrator was pretty much the best thing that ever happened to my plotting.
    - gcatalfamo 10y ago
      How did illustrator help you?
      - Fomite 10y ago
        The amount of basic formatting, changes, etc. that are trivial in a proper vector graphics editor but hard to cajole ggplot2, matplotlib or R's base graphics are...extensive.
  - IndianAstronaut 10y ago
    I find google charts a nice balance between ease of use and good looking charts.
  - _Wintermute 10y ago
    I find matplotlib far more flexible than ggplot. Which means 9 times out of 10 I can make the graph in about 5 lines of ggplot, and the more unusual takes about 50 lines of matplotlib. Have you tried D3 for static plots? It looks very verbose, but offers a lot of fine control.
selectron 10y ago
One of my biggest frustrations with python for data science is how bad the documentation for matplotlib is. Also the default settings leave a lot to be desired - look at the color map scatter plots to see what I mean. What is with all that white-space around the graph?
- lowmagnet 10y ago
  I find pandas documentation verbose but ultimately not real world. Every one of them generates random values which aren't visually distinct. Makes it hard to follow operations.
  - theseatoms 10y ago
    I completely agree with this assessment. Demonstration of the functionality is technically all there. It's often just hard to parse. (Admittedly, this is a bit of a nitpick for free software. Overall, I'm very happy with the package.)
- Jmoir 10y ago
  I fully agree with the crappy documentation. Which to be honest isn't consistent with the rest of the python sphere. Documentation tends to be pretty good generally. It's a shame.
- bunderbunder 10y ago
  For what it's worth, the Python version of ggplot seems to be making some headway. http://ggplot.yhathq.com http://ggplot.yhathq.com
- a_bonobo 10y ago
  tight_layout() gets rid of all that whitespace :) There are some alternatives with pretty defaults - I personally love seaborn [1] which builds on top of matplotlib, but seaborn is even more "do it the way I like it or suffer the consequences" - however, the coming v2.0 of Matplotlib comes with a few API changes and a different default color scheme: http://matplotlib.org/style_changes.html http://matplotlib.org/style_changes.html or http://matplotlib.1069221.n5.nabble.com/matplotlib-v2-0-0b1-td47165.html http://matplotlib.1069221.n5.nabble.com/matplotlib-v2-0-0b1-... [1] http://stanford.edu/~mwaskom/software/seaborn/examples/index.html http://stanford.edu/~mwaskom/software/seaborn/examples/index...
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

49 points by Jmoir 10y ago

Data to ink here is too low...

Is there a good introduction to using the object oriented interface to matplotlib? I sometimes see it in examples and referenced in the documentation, but I can't really wrap my head around it.

Jmoir 10y ago
Hmmm, I did a bit of searching and didn't find anything I particularly liked, I guess I'll add this to the list of posts I need to write. Nevertheless, I did find something. Check out these links: http://matplotlib.org/users/artists.html http://matplotlib.org/users/artists.html http://matplotlib.org/users/transforms_tutorial.html http://matplotlib.org/users/transforms_tutorial.html http://matplotlib.org/users/path_tutorial.html http://matplotlib.org/users/path_tutorial.html http://matplotlib.org/users/event_handling.html http://matplotlib.org/users/event_handling.html
xtiansimon 10y ago
Anatomy of MatPlotLib is informative and clear. But, alas, not the oop tutorial you're looking for. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MKucn8NtVeI&autoplay=1 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MKucn8NtVeI&autoplay=1

anc84 10y ago

I needed pixel perfect plots for visualising raster data and did not manage to make it render that. Felt similar to LaTeX: Great if you like what it does by default but don't you dare want something reasonably different. :\

glup 10y ago
Similar sentiments here. I get slightly further with ggplot2 but still end up fixing stuff manually in Illustrator which adds significant time. Anyone know 1) a more customizable plotting library or 2) a way to apply manual changes to new input pdfs? Biggest sticking points for me are overlapping labels and compositing multiple figures
- Fomite 10y ago
  Buying a copy of Illustrator was pretty much the best thing that ever happened to my plotting.
  - gcatalfamo 10y ago
    How did illustrator help you?
    - Fomite 10y ago
      The amount of basic formatting, changes, etc. that are trivial in a proper vector graphics editor but hard to cajole ggplot2, matplotlib or R's base graphics are...extensive.
- IndianAstronaut 10y ago
  I find google charts a nice balance between ease of use and good looking charts.
- _Wintermute 10y ago
  I find matplotlib far more flexible than ggplot. Which means 9 times out of 10 I can make the graph in about 5 lines of ggplot, and the more unusual takes about 50 lines of matplotlib. Have you tried D3 for static plots? It looks very verbose, but offers a lot of fine control.

selectron 10y ago

One of my biggest frustrations with python for data science is how bad the documentation for matplotlib is. Also the default settings leave a lot to be desired - look at the color map scatter plots to see what I mean. What is with all that white-space around the graph?

lowmagnet 10y ago
I find pandas documentation verbose but ultimately not real world. Every one of them generates random values which aren't visually distinct. Makes it hard to follow operations.
- theseatoms 10y ago
  I completely agree with this assessment. Demonstration of the functionality is technically all there. It's often just hard to parse. (Admittedly, this is a bit of a nitpick for free software. Overall, I'm very happy with the package.)
Jmoir 10y ago
I fully agree with the crappy documentation. Which to be honest isn't consistent with the rest of the python sphere. Documentation tends to be pretty good generally. It's a shame.
bunderbunder 10y ago
For what it's worth, the Python version of ggplot seems to be making some headway. http://ggplot.yhathq.com http://ggplot.yhathq.com
a_bonobo 10y ago
tight_layout() gets rid of all that whitespace :) There are some alternatives with pretty defaults - I personally love seaborn [1] which builds on top of matplotlib, but seaborn is even more "do it the way I like it or suffer the consequences" - however, the coming v2.0 of Matplotlib comes with a few API changes and a different default color scheme: http://matplotlib.org/style_changes.html http://matplotlib.org/style_changes.html or http://matplotlib.1069221.n5.nabble.com/matplotlib-v2-0-0b1-td47165.html http://matplotlib.1069221.n5.nabble.com/matplotlib-v2-0-0b1-... [1] http://stanford.edu/~mwaskom/software/seaborn/examples/index.html http://stanford.edu/~mwaskom/software/seaborn/examples/index...

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]