[python] Python matplotlib multiple bars

How to plot multiple bars in matplotlib, when I tried to call the bar function multiple times, they overlap and as seen the below figure the highest value red can be seen only. How can I plot the multiple bars with dates on the x-axes?

So far, I tried this:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import datetime

x = [
    datetime.datetime(2011, 1, 4, 0, 0),
    datetime.datetime(2011, 1, 5, 0, 0),
    datetime.datetime(2011, 1, 6, 0, 0)
]
y = [4, 9, 2]
z = [1, 2, 3]
k = [11, 12, 13]

ax = plt.subplot(111)
ax.bar(x, y, width=0.5, color='b', align='center')
ax.bar(x, z, width=0.5, color='g', align='center')
ax.bar(x, k, width=0.5, color='r', align='center')
ax.xaxis_date()

plt.show()

I got this:

enter image description here

The results should be something like, but with the dates are on the x-axes and bars are next to each other:

enter image description here

This question is related to python matplotlib

The answer is


I did this solution: if you want plot more than one plot in one figure, make sure before plotting next plots you have set right matplotlib.pyplot.hold(True) to able adding another plots.

Concerning the datetime values on the X axis, a solution using the alignment of bars works for me. When you create another bar plot with matplotlib.pyplot.bar(), just use align='edge|center' and set width='+|-distance'.

When you set all bars (plots) right, you will see the bars fine.


The trouble with using dates as x-values, is that if you want a bar chart like in your second picture, they are going to be wrong. You should either use a stacked bar chart (colours on top of each other) or group by date (a "fake" date on the x-axis, basically just grouping the data points).

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

N = 3
ind = np.arange(N)  # the x locations for the groups
width = 0.27       # the width of the bars

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)

yvals = [4, 9, 2]
rects1 = ax.bar(ind, yvals, width, color='r')
zvals = [1,2,3]
rects2 = ax.bar(ind+width, zvals, width, color='g')
kvals = [11,12,13]
rects3 = ax.bar(ind+width*2, kvals, width, color='b')

ax.set_ylabel('Scores')
ax.set_xticks(ind+width)
ax.set_xticklabels( ('2011-Jan-4', '2011-Jan-5', '2011-Jan-6') )
ax.legend( (rects1[0], rects2[0], rects3[0]), ('y', 'z', 'k') )

def autolabel(rects):
    for rect in rects:
        h = rect.get_height()
        ax.text(rect.get_x()+rect.get_width()/2., 1.05*h, '%d'%int(h),
                ha='center', va='bottom')

autolabel(rects1)
autolabel(rects2)
autolabel(rects3)

plt.show()

enter image description here


after looking for a similar solution and not finding anything flexible enough, I decided to write my own function for it. It allows you to have as many bars per group as you wish and specify both the width of a group as well as the individual widths of the bars within the groups.

Enjoy:

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt


def bar_plot(ax, data, colors=None, total_width=0.8, single_width=1, legend=True):
    """Draws a bar plot with multiple bars per data point.

    Parameters
    ----------
    ax : matplotlib.pyplot.axis
        The axis we want to draw our plot on.

    data: dictionary
        A dictionary containing the data we want to plot. Keys are the names of the
        data, the items is a list of the values.

        Example:
        data = {
            "x":[1,2,3],
            "y":[1,2,3],
            "z":[1,2,3],
        }

    colors : array-like, optional
        A list of colors which are used for the bars. If None, the colors
        will be the standard matplotlib color cyle. (default: None)

    total_width : float, optional, default: 0.8
        The width of a bar group. 0.8 means that 80% of the x-axis is covered
        by bars and 20% will be spaces between the bars.

    single_width: float, optional, default: 1
        The relative width of a single bar within a group. 1 means the bars
        will touch eachother within a group, values less than 1 will make
        these bars thinner.

    legend: bool, optional, default: True
        If this is set to true, a legend will be added to the axis.
    """

    # Check if colors where provided, otherwhise use the default color cycle
    if colors is None:
        colors = plt.rcParams['axes.prop_cycle'].by_key()['color']

    # Number of bars per group
    n_bars = len(data)

    # The width of a single bar
    bar_width = total_width / n_bars

    # List containing handles for the drawn bars, used for the legend
    bars = []

    # Iterate over all data
    for i, (name, values) in enumerate(data.items()):
        # The offset in x direction of that bar
        x_offset = (i - n_bars / 2) * bar_width + bar_width / 2

        # Draw a bar for every value of that type
        for x, y in enumerate(values):
            bar = ax.bar(x + x_offset, y, width=bar_width * single_width, color=colors[i % len(colors)])

        # Add a handle to the last drawn bar, which we'll need for the legend
        bars.append(bar[0])

    # Draw legend if we need
    if legend:
        ax.legend(bars, data.keys())


if __name__ == "__main__":
    # Usage example:
    data = {
        "a": [1, 2, 3, 2, 1],
        "b": [2, 3, 4, 3, 1],
        "c": [3, 2, 1, 4, 2],
        "d": [5, 9, 2, 1, 8],
        "e": [1, 3, 2, 2, 3],
        "f": [4, 3, 1, 1, 4],
    }

    fig, ax = plt.subplots()
    bar_plot(ax, data, total_width=.8, single_width=.9)
    plt.show()

Output:

enter image description here


I know that this is about matplotlib, but using pandas and seaborn can save you a lot of time:

df = pd.DataFrame(zip(x*3, ["y"]*3+["z"]*3+["k"]*3, y+z+k), columns=["time", "kind", "data"])
plt.figure(figsize=(10, 6))
sns.barplot(x="time", hue="kind", y="data", data=df)
plt.show()

enter image description here