[python] Plotting images side by side using matplotlib

I was wondering how I am able to plot images side by side using matplotlib for example something like this:

The closest I got is this:

This was produced by using this code:

f, axarr = plt.subplots(2,2)
axarr[0,0] = plt.imshow(image_datas[0])
axarr[0,1] = plt.imshow(image_datas[1])
axarr[1,0] = plt.imshow(image_datas[2])
axarr[1,1] = plt.imshow(image_datas[3])

But I can't seem to get the other images to show. I'm thinking that there must be a better way to do this as I would imagine trying to manage the indexes would be a pain. I have looked through the documentation although I have a feeling I may be look at the wrong one. Would anyone be able to provide me with an example or point me in the right direction?

You are plotting all your images on one axis. What you want ist to get a handle for each axis individually and plot your images there. Like so:

fig = plt.figure()
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(2,2,1)
ax1.imshow(...)
ax2 = fig.add_subplot(2,2,2)
ax2.imshow(...)
ax3 = fig.add_subplot(2,2,3)
ax3.imshow(...)
ax4 = fig.add_subplot(2,2,4)
ax4.imshow(...)

For more info have a look here: http://matplotlib.org/examples/pylab_examples/subplots_demo.html

For complex layouts, you should consider using gridspec: http://matplotlib.org/users/gridspec.html

If the images are in an array and you want to iterate through each element and print it, you can write the code as follows:

plt.figure(figsize=(10,10)) # specifying the overall grid size

for i in range(25):
    plt.subplot(5,5,i+1)    # the number of images in the grid is 5*5 (25)
    plt.imshow(the_array[i])

plt.show()

Also note that I used subplot and not subplots. They're both different

As per matplotlib's suggestion for image grids:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1 import ImageGrid

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(4., 4.))
grid = ImageGrid(fig, 111,  # similar to subplot(111)
                 nrows_ncols=(2, 2),  # creates 2x2 grid of axes
                 axes_pad=0.1,  # pad between axes in inch.
                 )

for ax, im in zip(grid, image_data):
    # Iterating over the grid returns the Axes.
    ax.imshow(im)

plt.show()

One thing that I found quite helpful to use to print all images :

_, axs = plt.subplots(n_row, n_col, figsize=(12, 12))
axs = axs.flatten()
for img, ax in zip(imgs, axs):
    ax.imshow(img)
plt.show()