Last Updated : 12 Jul, 2025
Axes.plot() method in Matplotlib is used to plot data on a set of axes. It is primarily used for creating line plots but can be extended for other types of plots, including scatter plots, bar plots, and more. When using this function, you typically provide the x and y coordinates of the data points you want to plot. Example:
Python
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
# make an agg figure
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot([1, 2, 3])
ax.set_title('matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot() example 1')
fig.canvas.draw()
plt.show()
Output:
Explanation: This code creates a line plot with the data [1, 2, 3], adds a title "matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot() example 1", and then displays the plot using plt.show(). The plot is drawn on an agg backend figure to render without displaying the window immediately until plt.show() is called.
SyntaxAxes.plot(self, *args, **kwargs)
Parameters:
Return Value: This returns a list of Line2D objects representing the plotted data. These objects allow further customization or modification of the plotted lines after they have been created.
Examples of Matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot() 1. Line Plot with Date Formatting Using matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot()This code demonstrates how to create a line plot with dates on the x-axis using matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot() in Python. It shows how to format date-time values and customize the x-axis with different date and time locators, formats, and labels.
Python
import datetime
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.dates import DayLocator, HourLocator, DateFormatter, drange
import numpy as np
date1 = datetime.datetime(2000, 3, 2)
date2 = datetime.datetime(2000, 3, 6)
delta = datetime.timedelta(hours = 6)
dates = drange(date1, date2, delta)
y = np.arange(len(dates))
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot_date(dates, y ** 2)
ax.set_xlim(dates[0], dates[-1])
ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(DayLocator())
ax.xaxis.set_minor_locator(HourLocator(range(0, 25, 6)))
ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter(DateFormatter('% Y-% m-% d'))
ax.fmt_xdata = DateFormatter('% Y-% m-% d % H:% M:% S')
fig.autofmt_xdate()
plt.title("Matplotlib Axes Class Example")
plt.show()
Output:
Explanation:
This code demonstrates how to create multiple line plots with different data series using matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot() in Python. It also shows how to customize the color of the lines and set axis limits.
Python
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
# Fixing random state for reproducibility
np.random.seed(19680801)
xdata = np.random.random([2, 10])
xdata1 = xdata[0, :]
xdata2 = xdata[1, :]
xdata1.sort()
xdata2.sort()
ydata1 = xdata1 ** 2
ydata2 = 1 - xdata2 ** 3
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
ax.plot(xdata1, ydata1, color ='tab:blue')
ax.plot(xdata2, ydata2, color ='tab:orange')
# set the limits
ax.set_xlim([0, 1])
ax.set_ylim([0, 1])
ax.set_title('matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot() example 2')
plt.show()
Output:
Explanation:
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4