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to download the full example code.</p>

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<span id="sphx-glr-tutorials-coding-shortcuts-py"></span><h1>Coding shortcuts<a class="headerlink" href="#coding-shortcuts" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h1>

<p>Matplotlib's primary and universal API is the <a class="reference internal" href="../users/explain/figure/api_interfaces.html#api-interfaces"><span class="std std-ref">Axes interface</span></a>.

While it is clearly structured and powerful, it can sometimes feel overly verbose and

thus cumbersome to write. This page collects patterns for condensing the code

of the Axes-based API and achieving the same results with less typing for many simpler

plots.</p>

<p>The <a class="reference internal" href="../users/explain/figure/api_interfaces.html#pyplot-interface"><span class="std std-ref">pyplot interface</span></a> is an alternative more compact

interface, and was historically modeled to be similar to MATLAB. It remains a

valid approach for those who want to use it. However, it has the disadvantage that

it achieves its brevity through implicit assumptions that you have to understand.</p>

<p>Since it follows a different paradigm, switching between the Axes interface and

the pyplot interface requires a shift of the mental model, and some code rewrite,

if the code develops to a point at which pyplot no longer provides enough

flexibility.</p>

</div>

<p>This tutorial goes the other way round, starting from the standard verbose Axes

interface and using its capabilities for shortcuts when you don't need all the

generality.</p>

<p>Let's assume we want to make a plot of the number of daylight hours per day over the

year in London.</p>

<p>The standard approach with the Axes interface looks like this.</p>

<div class="highlight-Python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">matplotlib.pyplot</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="k">as</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">plt</span>

<span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">numpy</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="k">as</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">np</span>

<a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">hours</span></a> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mf">4.276</span> <span class="o">*</span> <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ufunc.html#numpy.ufunc" title="numpy.ufunc" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">sin</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span> <span class="o">*</span> <a href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html#float" title="builtins.float" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-builtins sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">pi</span></a> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="p">(</span><a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">day</span></a> <span class="o">-</span> <span class="mi">80</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="mi">365</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="mf">12.203</span>

<a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.figure.Figure.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">ax</span></a> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">()</span>

<a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">(</span><a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">day</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">hours</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">color</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"orange"</span><span class="p">)</span>

<a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_xlabel</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">"day"</span><span class="p">)</span>

<a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_ylabel</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">"daylight hours"</span><span class="p">)</span>

<a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_title</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">"London"</span><span class="p">)</span>

</pre></div>

</div>

<img src="../_images/sphx_glr_coding_shortcuts_001.png" srcset="../_images/sphx_glr_coding_shortcuts_001.png, ../_images/sphx_glr_coding_shortcuts_001_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="London" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/><p>Note that we've included <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">plt.show()</span></code> here. This is needed to show the plot window

when running from a command line or in a Python script. If you run a Jupyter notebook,

this command is automatically executed at the end of each cell.</p>

<p>For the rest of the tutorial, we'll assume that we are in a notebook and leave this

out for brevity. Depending on your context you may still need it.</p>

<p>If you instead want to save to a file, use <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fig.savefig("daylight.png")</span></code>.</p>

<h2>Collect Axes properties into a single <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set()</span></code> call<a class="headerlink" href="#collect-axes-properties-into-a-single-set-call" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>

<p>The properties of Matplotlib Artists can be modified through their respective

<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_*()</span></code> methods. Artists additionally have a generic <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set()</span></code> method, that takes

keyword arguments and is equivalent to calling all the respective <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_*()</span></code> methods.</p>

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_xlabel</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">"day"</span><span class="p">)</span>

</pre></div>

</div>

<p>can also be written as</p>

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">xlabel</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"day"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ylabel</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"daylight hours"</span><span class="p">)</span>

</pre></div>

</div>

<p>This is the most simple and effective reduction you can do. With that we can shorten

the above plot to</p>

<div class="highlight-Python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.figure.Figure.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-figure sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">fig</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">ax</span></a> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">()</span>

<a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">xlabel</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"day"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ylabel</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"daylight hours"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">title</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"London"</span><span class="p">)</span>

</pre></div>

</div>

<img src="../_images/sphx_glr_coding_shortcuts_002.png" srcset="../_images/sphx_glr_coding_shortcuts_002.png, ../_images/sphx_glr_coding_shortcuts_002_2_00x.png 2.00x" alt="London" class = "sphx-glr-single-img"/><p>This works as long as you only need to pass one parameter to the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_*()</span></code> function.

The individual functions are still necessary if you want more control, e.g.

<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_title("London",</span> <span class="pre">fontsize=16)</span></code>.</p>

</section>

<h2>Not storing a reference to the figure<a class="headerlink" href="#not-storing-a-reference-to-the-figure" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>

<p>Another nuisance of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fig,</span> <span class="pre">ax</span> <span class="pre">=</span> <span class="pre">plt.subplots()</span></code> is that you always create a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fig</span></code>

variable, even if you don't use it. A slightly shorter version would be using the

standard variable for unused value in Python (<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">_</span></code>): <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">_,</span> <span class="pre">ax</span> <span class="pre">=</span> <span class="pre">plt.subplots()</span></code>.

However, that's only marginally better.</p>

<p>You can work around this by separating figure and Axes creation and chaining them</p>

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">ax</span></a> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.figure.html#matplotlib.pyplot.figure" title="matplotlib.pyplot.figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">figure</span></a><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_subplot</span><span class="p">()</span>

</pre></div>

</div>

<p>This is a bit cleaner logically and has the slight advantage that you could set

figure properties inline as well; e.g. <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">plt.figure(facecolor="lightgoldenrod")</span></code>.

But it has the disadvantage that it's longer than <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fig,</span> <span class="pre">ax</span> <span class="pre">=</span> <span class="pre">plt.subplots()</span></code>.</p>

<p>You can still obtain the figure from the Axes if needed, e.g.</p>

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">ax</span></a><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">figure</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">savefig</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">"daylight_hours.png"</span><span class="p">)</span>

</pre></div>

</div>

<p>The example code now looks like this:</p>

</pre></div>

</div>

<h2>Define Axes properties during axes creation<a class="headerlink" href="#define-axes-properties-during-axes-creation" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>

<p>The <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_*</span></code> methods as well as <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set</span></code> modify existing objects. You can

alternatively define them right at creation. Since you typically don't instantiate

classes yourself in Matplotlib, but rather call some factory function that creates

the object and wires it up correctly with the plot, this may seem less obvious. But

in fact you just pass the desired properties to the factory functions. You are likely

doing this already in some places without realizing. Consider the function to create

a line</p>

<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-method"><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">color</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"orange"</span><span class="p">)</span>

</pre></div>

</div>

<p>This is equivalent to</p>

<span class="n">line</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_color</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">"orange"</span><span class="p">)</span>

</pre></div>

</div>

<p>The same can be done with functions that create Axes.</p>

<div class="highlight-Python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">ax</span></a> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.figure.html#matplotlib.pyplot.figure" title="matplotlib.pyplot.figure" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">figure</span></a><span class="p">()</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_subplot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">xlabel</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"day"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ylabel</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"daylight hours"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">title</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"London"</span><span class="p">)</span>

</pre></div>

</div>

<p class="admonition-title">Important</p>

<p>The Axes properties are only accepted as keyword arguments by

<a class="reference internal" href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.figure.Figure.add_subplot.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.add_subplot" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.add_subplot"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Figure.add_subplot</span></code></a>, which creates a single Axes.</p>

<p>For <a class="reference internal" href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Figure.subplots</span></code></a> and <a class="reference internal" href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pyplot.subplots</span></code></a>, you'd have to pass the properties

as a dict via the keyword argument <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">subplot_kw</span></code>. The limitation here is that

such parameters are given to all Axes. For example, if you need two subplots

(<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">fig,</span> <span class="pre">(ax1,</span> <span class="pre">ax2)</span> <span class="pre">=</span> <span class="pre">plt.subplots(1,</span> <span class="pre">2)</span></code>) with different labels, you have to

set them individually.</p>

</div>

<p>Defining Axes properties during creation is best used for single subplots or when

all subplots share the same properties.</p>

</section>

<h2>Using implicit figure creation<a class="headerlink" href="#using-implicit-figure-creation" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>

<p>You can go even further by tapping into the pyplot logic and use <a class="reference internal" href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.axes.html#matplotlib.pyplot.axes" title="matplotlib.pyplot.axes"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pyplot.axes</span></code></a> to

create the axes:</p>

<div class="highlight-Python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-axes sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">ax</span></a> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.axes.html#matplotlib.pyplot.axes" title="matplotlib.pyplot.axes" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">axes</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">xlabel</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"day"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ylabel</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"daylight hours"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">title</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"London"</span><span class="p">)</span>

</pre></div>

</div>

<p class="admonition-title">Warning</p>

<p>When using this, you have to be aware of the implicit figure semantics of pyplot.

<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">plt.axes()</span></code> will only create a new figure if no figure exists. Otherwise, it

will add the Axes to the current existing figure, which is likely not what you

want.</p>

</div>

</section>

<h2>Not storing a reference to the Axes<a class="headerlink" href="#not-storing-a-reference-to-the-axes" title="Link to this heading">#</a></h2>

<p>If you only need to visualize one dataset, you can append the plot command

directly to the Axes creation. This may be useful e.g. in notebooks,

where you want to create a plot with some configuration, but as little distracting

code as possible:</p>

<div class="highlight-Python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><a href="../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.axes.html#matplotlib.pyplot.axes" title="matplotlib.pyplot.axes" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-matplotlib-pyplot sphx-glr-backref-type-py-function"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">axes</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">xlabel</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"day"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ylabel</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"daylight hours"</span><span class="p">)</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">day</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <a href="https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.ndarray.html#numpy.ndarray" title="numpy.ndarray" class="sphx-glr-backref-module-numpy sphx-glr-backref-type-py-class sphx-glr-backref-instance"><span class="n">hours</span></a><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">color</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">"orange"</span><span class="p">)</span>

</pre></div>

</div>

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<li class="toc-h2 nav-item toc-entry"><a class="reference internal nav-link" href="#collect-axes-properties-into-a-single-set-call">Collect Axes properties into a single <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set()</span></code> call</a></li>

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