Data Visualisation using Python Matplotlib Pyplot Class 12

Data Visualisation using Python Matplotlib Pyplot

Data visualisation means graphical or pictorial representation of the data using graph, chart, etc. The
purpose of plotting data is to visualise variation or show relationships between variables.

In this article, we will learn how to visualise data using Matplotlib library of Python by plotting charts
such
as line, bar with respect to the various types of data.

Plotting using Matplotlib

Matplotlib library is used for creating static, animated, and interactive 2D- plots in Python. The
command to install matplotlib is given below

pip install matplotlib

For plotting using Matplotlib, we need to import its Pyplot module using the following command:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

NOTE: plt is an alias or an alternative name for matplotlib.pyplot

Different components of plot

1. Chart Title
2. Legend
3. X-Axis label
4. Y-Axis label
5. X-ticks
6. Y-ticks

plot( ) function of pyplot module

The plot() function of the pyplot module is used to create a chart. It is always expected that the data
presented through charts easily understood. Hence, while presenting data we should always give a
chart title, label the axis of the chart and provide legend in case we have more than one plotted data.

show( ) function of pyplot module

The show() function is used to display the figure created using the plot() function.

Let we discuss a program to demonstrate the use of plot( ) and show( ) function.
#Example 1: program to show number of students vs marks obtained (Line Plot)

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

nos = [2, 9, 20, 25, 30, 39]
marks = [12, 24, 25, 27,29, 30]
plt.plot(nos, marks)
plt.yticks(nos)
plt.show()
 Data Visualisation line plot

plot() is provided with two parameters(nos, marks), which indicates values for x-axis and y-axis,
respectively. The x and y ticks are displayed accordingly. As shown in Figure 4.2, the plot() function by
default plots a line chart. We can click on the save button on the output window and save the plot as
an image. A figure can also be saved by using savefig() function.

for example: plt.savefig(‘marks.png’).

#Example 2: program to show number of students vs marks obtained (Bar Plot)

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

nos = [2, 9, 20, 25, 30, 39]
marks = [12, 24, 25, 27,29, 30]
plt.bar(nos, marks)
plt.show()

Data Visualisation – Bar Plot

#Example 3: program to show number of students vs marks obtained (Horizontal Bar Plot)

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

nos = [2, 9, 20, 25, 30, 39]
marks = [12, 24, 25, 27,29, 30]
plt.barh(nos, marks)
plt.show()

Data Visualisation – Barh Plot

Customisation of Plots :
Pyplot library gives us numerous functions, which can be used to customise charts such as adding
titles or
legends. Some of the options are listed below

Options Explanation
grid shows the grid lines on plot.
legend Place a legend on the axes.
savefig used to save the figure(plot)
show Display the figure
title Display the title for the plot
xlabel Set the label for the X-axis.
ylabel Set the label for the y-axis.
xticks Get or set the current tick locations and labels of the X-axis.
yticks Get or set the current tick locations and labels of the Y-axis.

#Example 4: Plotting a line chart of “Month Name” versus “Monthly Saving” given below and adding
label on X and Y axis, and adding a title and grids to the chart.

month =[“Jan”, “Feb”, “Mar”, “Apr”, “May”, “Jun”]

msaving=[1000, 500, 700, 550, 600, 800 ]

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
month =["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun"]
msaving=[1000, 500, 700, 550, 600, 800 ]
plt.plot(month, msaving)
plt.xlabel("Month Name") #add the Label on x-axis
plt.ylabel("Monthly Saving") #add the Label on y-axis
plt.title("Month Name vs Monthly Saving") #add the title to the chart
plt.grid(True) #add gridlines to the background
plt.show()

Data Visualisation – Month Name Vs Monthly Saving

Other Attributes for Customisation of Plots :

1. Marker : A marker is any symbol that represents a data value in a line chart. We can specify each
point in the line chart through a marker.

2. Colour : We can format the plot further by changing the colour of the plotted data. We can either
use character codes or the color names as values to the parameter color in the plot(). Following table
shows aome colour characters.

Character Colour
‘b’ Blue
‘g’ Green
 ‘r’ Red
‘c’ Cyan
‘m’ Magenta
‘y’ Yellow
‘k’ Black
‘w’ White

3. Linewidth and Line Style : The linewidth and linestyle property can be used to change the width and
the style of the line chart. Linewidth is specified in pixels. The default line width is 1 pixel. We can also
set the line style of a line chart using the linestyle parameter. It can take a value such as “solid”,
“dotted”, “dashed” or “dashdot”.

#Example 5: Plotting a line chart of “Month Name” versus “Monthly Saving” given below

month =[“Jan”, “Feb”, “Mar”, “Apr”, “May”, “Jun”]

msaving=[1000, 500, 700, 550, 600, 800 ]

Let us plot a line chart where:

i. x axis will represent Month

ii. y axis will represent Monthly Saving
iii. x axis label should be “Month Name”
iv. y axis label should be “Monthly Saving”
v. colour of the line should be red
vi. use * as marker
vii. Marker size as10
viii. The title of the chart should be “Month Names vs Monthly Saving”.
ix. Line style should be dashed
x. Linewidth should be 2.
Ans.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

month =["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun"]

msaving=[1000, 500, 700, 550, 600, 800 ]

plt.plot(month, msaving,marker="*", markersize=10, color="red", linewidth=2, linestyle='dashdot')

plt.xlabel("Month Name") #add the Label on x-axis

plt.ylabel("Monthly Saving") #add the Label on y-axis

plt.title("Month Name vs Monthly Saving") #add the title to the chart

plt.grid(True) #add gridlines to the background

plt.show()

OR

we can also create the DataFrame using 2 lists, and in the plot function we can passed the Month
Name and Monthly Saving of the DataFrame
Ans.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import pandas as pd

month =["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun"]

msaving=[1000, 500, 700, 550, 600, 800 ]

df=pd.DataFrame({"Month" : month, "MonthlySaving" : msaving})

plt.plot(df.Month, df.MonthlySaving, marker="*", markersize=10, color="red", linewidth=2, linestyle='dashdot')

plt.xlabel("Month Name") #add the Label on x-axis

plt.ylabel("Monthly Saving") #add the Label on y-axis

plt.title("Month Name vs Monthly Saving") #add the title to the chart

plt.grid(True) #add gridlines to the background

plt.show()

Data Visualisation – Customisation of Line Plot

The Pandas Plot Function :

In above Programs, we learnt that the plot() function of the pyplot module of matplotlib can be used to
plot a chart. However, starting from version 0.17.0, Pandas objects Series and DataFrame come
equipped with their own .plot() methods. Thus, if we have a Series or DataFrame type object (let’s say
‘s’ or ‘df’) we can call the plot method by writing:

s.plot() or df.plot()

The plot() method of Pandas accepts an arguments “kind” that can be used to plot a variety of graphs.
The general syntax is:

plt.plot(kind)

kind = Plot type

line Line plot (default)
bar Vertical bar plot
barh Horizontal bar plot
hist Histogram
pie pie plot

Plotting a Line chart :.

A line plot is a graph that shows the frequency of data along a number line. It is used to show
continuous
dataset. A line plot is used to visualise growth or decline in data over a time interval.

#Example 6: The file “monthsales.csv” have stored the sales (in Rs) made in first six months for four
years.

2018 2019 2020 2021

2500 2600 2450 3250
2200 1800 2000 3200
3000 2500 3000 3800
2800 3000 3100 2800
2750 3200 1950 2900
3500 2000 3550 2300
Year-wise sales of first six months

Draw the line chart for the data given above with following details.
 1. Chart title as “Year-Wise Sales”
2. X-axis label as “Months”
3. Y-axis label as “Sales”

import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# reads "monthsales.csv" to df by giving path to the file
df=pd.read_csv("monthsales.csv")
#create a line plot of different color for each week
df.plot(kind='line', color=['red', 'blue', 'brown', 'Yellow'])
# Set title to "Year-Wise Sales"
plt.title('Year-Wise Sales')
# Label x axis as "Months"
plt.xlabel('Months')
# Label y axis as "Sales"
plt.ylabel('Sales')
#Display the figure
plt.show()

Data Visualisation: Line chart from csv

Customising a Line chart :.

We can substitute the ticks at x axis with a list of values of our choice by using plt.xticks(ticks,label)
where
ticks is a list of locations(locs) on x axis at which ticks should be placed, label is a list of items to place
at the
given ticks.

#Example 7: Assuming the same CSV file, i.e., monthsales.csv, plot the line chart with following
customisations. Chart should have Month name on X-axis instead of numbers.
Maker =”*”
Marker size=10
linestyle=”–“
Linewidth =3
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# reads "monthsales.csv" to df by giving path to the file
df=pd.read_csv("monthsales.csv")
df["Months"]=["Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","June"]
#create a line plot of different color for each week
df.plot(kind='line', color=['red', 'blue', 'brown', 'Yellow'],marker="*", markersize=10, linewidth=3, linestyle="--")
# Set title to "Year-Wise Sales"
plt.title('Year-Wise Sales')
# Label x axis as "Months"
plt.xlabel('Months')
# Label y axis as "Sales"
plt.ylabel('Sales')
ticks = df.index.tolist()
#displays corresponding Month name on x axis
plt.xticks(ticks,df.Months)
#Display the figure
plt.show()

Data Visualisation: Line chart from csv with Month Name

Plotting a bar chart :.

In above example lines are unable to show comparison between the years for which the sales data is
plotted. In order to show comparisons, we prefer Bar charts. Unlike line plots, bar charts can plot
strings on the x axis. To plot a bar chart, we will specify kind=’bar’.

#Example 8: Let us take the same data as shown in Example 6 in file “monthsales.csv”

Month 2018 2019 2020 2021

Jan 2500 2600 2450 2900
Feb 2200 1800 2000 3200
Mar 3000 2500 3000 3800
Apr 2800 3000 3100 2800
May 2750 3200 1950 2900
June 3500 2000 3550 2300
Year-wise sales of first six months

To plot the bar chart of above data, use the same code as given in Example 6, just make a small change
use

kind = ‘bar’ instead of kind = ‘line’

import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# reads "monthsales.csv" to df by giving path to the file
df=pd.read_csv("monthsales.csv")
#create a line plot of different color for each week
df.plot(kind='bar', color=['red', 'blue', 'brown', 'Yellow'])
# Set title to "Year-Wise Sales"
plt.title('Year-Wise Sales')
# Label x axis as "Months"
plt.xlabel('Months')
# Label y axis as "Sales"
plt.ylabel('Sales')
#Display the figure
plt.show()

Data Visualisation: Bar chart year wise sales

#Example 9: Let us add a new column “Month” in the file “monthsales.csv” as shown below

Month 2018 2019 2020 2021

Jan 2500 2600 2450 2900
Feb 2200 1800 2000 3200
Mar 3000 2500 3000 3800
Apr 2800 3000 3100 2800
May 2750 3200 1950 2900
June 3500 2000 3550 2300
Year-wise sales of first six months

To plot the bar chart of above data and to show the month name in X-axis just add the following
attribute in plot()

x = Month #Month is the column name

import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# reads "monthsales.csv" to df by giving path to the file
df=pd.read_csv("monthsales.csv")
#create a line plot of different color for each month
df.plot(kind='bar', x='Month', color=['red', 'blue', 'brown', 'Yellow'])
# Set title to "Year-Wise Sales"
plt.title('Year-Wise Sales')
# Label x axis as "Months"
plt.xlabel('Months')
# Label y axis as "Sales"
plt.ylabel('Sales')
#Display the figure
plt.show()
 Data Visualisation: Bar chart year wise with month name

Customising a Bar chart :.

We can also customise the bar chart by adding certain parameters to the plot function. We can control
the
edgecolor of the bar, linestyle and linewidth. We can also control the color of the lines.

#Example 10: Write a Program to display Bar plot for the “monthsales.csv” file with column ‘Month’
on x axis, and having the following customisation:

● Edgecolor to green
● Linewidth as 2
● Line style as “–“
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# reads "monthsales.csv" to df by giving path to the file
df=pd.read_csv("monthsales.csv")
#create a line plot of different color for each week
df.plot(kind = 'bar', x ='Month', color = ['red', 'blue', 'brown', 'Yellow'], edgecolor = 'Green', linewidth=2, linestyle ='--')
# Set title to "Year-Wise Sales"
plt.title('Year-Wise Sales')
# Label x axis as "Months"
plt.xlabel('Months')
# Label y axis as "Sales"
plt.ylabel('Sales')
#Display the figure
plt.show()
 Data Visualisation: Bar chart with Customisation

Customising a Bar chart :.

Histograms are column-charts, where each column represents a range of values, and the height of a
column
corresponds to how many values are in that range.

The df.plot(kind=’hist’) function automatically selects the size of the bins based on the spread of
values in
the data.

#Example 11: Plot a histogram to show the bin value calculated by plot( ) function.
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
data = {'Height' : [60, 61, 63, 65, 61, 60], 'Weight' : [47, 89, 52, 58, 50, 47]}
df=pd.DataFrame(data)
df.plot(kind='hist')
plt.show()

Data Visualisation: Histogram

It is also possible to set value for the bins parameter, for example,
df.plot(kind=’hist’,bins=20)
df.plot(kind=’hist’,bins=[18,19,20,21,22])
df.plot(kind=’hist’,bins=range(18,25))

#Example 12: Plot a histogram with user specified bin values.

[45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85]

import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
data = {'Height' : [60, 61, 63, 65, 61, 60], 'Weight' : [47, 89, 52, 58, 50, 47]}
df=pd.DataFrame(data)
df.plot(kind='hist', bins=[45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85])
plt.show()

Data Visualisation: Histogram with bin value

Customising a Histogram :.

Let we create the same histogram as created above with the following customisation

1. Edgecolor: It is the border of each hist and let make it green

2. line style: Let make line style to ‘:’
3. line width: Let make it to 3

Let us try another property called fill, which takes boolean values. The default True means each hist
will be filled with color and False means each hist will be empty. Another property called hatch can be
used to fill to each hist with pattern ( ‘-‘, ‘+’, ‘x’, ‘\’, ‘*’, ‘o’, ‘O’, ‘.’).
#Example 13:

import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
data = {'Height' : [60, 61, 63, 65, 61, 60], 'Weight' : [47, 89, 52, 58, 50, 47]}
df=pd.DataFrame(data)
df.plot(kind='hist', edgecolor = 'Green', linewidth=3, linestyle=':', fill=False, hatch='o')
plt.show()
 Data Visualisation: Customised Histogram

Reading specific column from CSV file:.

Let us consider the ‘monthsales.csv’ file that we created above

Month 2018 2019 2020 2021

Jan 2500 2600 2450 2900
Feb 2200 1800 2000 3200
Mar 3000 2500 3000 3800
Apr 2800 3000 3100 2800
May 2750 3200 1950 2900
June 3500 2000 3550 2300
Year-wise sales of first six months

#Example 14: Now we are going to read specific columns (2018 and 2021) from “monthsales.csv” and
plot the line chart
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# reads "monthsales.csv" to df by giving path to the file
df=pd.read_csv("monthsales.csv", usecols=['2018', '2021'])
#create a line plot of different color for each week
df.plot(kind='line', color=['red', 'blue'])
# Set title to "Year-Wise Sales"
plt.title('Year-Wise Sales')
# Label x axis as "Months"
plt.xlabel('Months')
# Label y axis as "Sales"
plt.ylabel('Sales')
#Display the figure
plt.show()