Delete a subplot

Question

I'm trying to figure out a way of deleting (dynamically) subplots in matplotlib. I see they have a remove method, but I get the error

NotImplementedError: cannot remove artist

I'm surprised that I can't find this anywhere. Does anyone know how to do this?

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt

fig, axs = plt.subplots(1,3)

axs[0].plot([1,2],[3,4])
axs[2].plot([0,1],[2,3])

plt.draw()
plt.tight_layout()

score 154 · Accepted Answer · edited May 02 '22 at 22:43

154

Use fig.delaxes or plt.delaxes to remove unwanted subplots

fig, axs = plt.subplots(1,3)
axs[0].plot([1,2],[3,4])
axs[2].plot([0,1],[2,3])

fig.delaxes(axs[1])

plt.draw()
plt.tight_layout()

edited May 02 '22 at 22:43

tdy

answered Feb 04 '13 at 20:07

Jeff

1

Many thanks for the answer! And how to get rid of the empty space in between the subplots now, and let two plots fill all the window width? tight_layout() doesn't work properly for me... – Roman Sverdlov Jul 12 '23 at 12:52

score 31 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 15 '18 at 02:51

31

ax.set_visible(False)

will suffice in most cases.

answered Jan 15 '18 at 02:51

naught101

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered May 02 '22 at 22:22

4

Remove the axis from the figure doc:

axs[1].remove()

answered May 02 '22 at 22:22

stansy

3 Answers3