matplotlib.pyplot How to name different lines in the same plot?

Question

Think about doing this:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.plot(x_A,y_A,'g--')
plt.plot(x_B,y_B,'r-o')
plt.show()

How would you go about giving both lines different names, i.e. like Microsoft Excel would do it?

Another approach is to place the labels near the lines that they correspond to: https://stackoverflow.com/a/29724863/1959808 — 0 _, Sep 14 '17 at 11:09

score 41 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 18 '12 at 12:29

41

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.plot(x_A,y_A,'g--', label="plot A")
plt.plot(x_B,y_B,'r-o', label="plot A")
plt.legend()
plt.show()

answered Jun 18 '12 at 12:29

Simon Bergot

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 18 '12 at 12:28

6

You can give each line a label.

plt.plot(x_A,y_A,'g--', label='x_A')

These labels can then be displayed in a legend with

legend()

legend takes some arguments, see the documentation to see what it can do.

answered Jun 18 '12 at 12:28

Benjamin Bannier

2 Answers2