Set different margins for left and right side

Question

I know how to increase the margin on both sides in matplotlib:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.set_xmargin(0.3)   

ax.plot(range(10), np.random.rand(10))
plt.show()

However, I would like to have a margin only on the right side: something like ax.set_xmargin(left=0.0, right=0.3). Is that possible? I cannot set the axis limits manually because the plot is animated and the data change at every step.

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 20 '18 at 11:20

There is an old feature request for this, which is still open. So, no, you cannot set the margins independently as of any current version of matplotlib.

Of course you may write your own function to do what you want.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot([1,2,3],[1,3,1])

def set_xmargin(ax, left=0.0, right=0.3):
    ax.set_xmargin(0)
    ax.autoscale_view()
    lim = ax.get_xlim()
    delta = np.diff(lim)
    left = lim[0] - delta*left
    right = lim[1] + delta*right
    ax.set_xlim(left,right)

set_xmargin(ax, left=0.05, right=0.2)

plt.show()

Using this in an animation would require to call it in each animation step. This may slow down the animation a bit, but should still be fine for most applications.

Set different margins for left and right side

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