Basic Matplotlib Scatter Plot From Pandas DataFrame

Question

How to make a basic scatter plot of column in a DataFrame vs the index of that DataFrame? Im using python 2.7.

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

dataframe['Col'].plot()
plt.show()

This shows a line chart of 'Col' plotted against the values in my DataFrame index (dates in this case).

But how do I plot a scatterplot rather than a line chart?

I tried

plt.scatter(dataframe['Col'])
plt.show()

But scatter() requires 2 arguments. So how do I pass the series dataframe['Col'] and my dataframe index into scatter() ?

I for this I tried

plt.scatter(dataframe.index.values, dataframe['Col'])
plt.show()

But chart is blank.

That works for me... can you include dataframe.head() and dataframe.describe() in your question? — Justin
– Justin, Commented Dec 6, 2013 at 22:44

bmu · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-07 10:12:53Z

9

If you just want to change from lines to points (and not really want/need to use matplotlib.scatter) you can simply set the style:

In [6]: df=  pd.DataFrame({'Col': np.random.uniform(size=1000)})

In [7]: df['Col'].plot(style='.')
Out[7]: <matplotlib.axes.AxesSubplot at 0x4c3bb10>

scatter_example

See the docs of DataFrame.plot and the general plotting documentation.

answered Dec 7, 2013 at 10:12

bmu

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2 Comments

Jimmy C Over a year ago

How are you getting that color theme? When I'm executing the same commands, it looks like the regular old and boring matplotlib type of chart.

bmu Over a year ago

Just use pd.options.display.mpl_style = 'default' before you plot or use your own matplotlibrc

hernamesbarbara · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-06 22:47:39Z

7

Strange. That ought to work.

Running this

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

dataframe = pd.DataFrame({'Col': np.random.uniform(size=1000)})
plt.scatter(dataframe.index, dataframe['Col'])

spits out something like this

enter image description here

Maybe quit() and fire up a new session?

answered Dec 6, 2013 at 22:47

hernamesbarbara

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1 Comment

Jimmy C Over a year ago

How are you getting that color theme? When I'm executing the same commands, it looks like the regular old and boring matplotlib type of chart.

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