[python] Plot yerr/xerr as shaded region rather than error bars

In matplotlib, how do I plot error as a shaded region rather than error bars?

For example:

enter image description here

rather than

enter image description here

This question is related to python matplotlib

The answer is


Ignoring the smooth interpolation between points in your example graph (that would require doing some manual interpolation, or just have a higher resolution of your data), you can use pyplot.fill_between():

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x = np.linspace(0, 30, 30)
y = np.sin(x/6*np.pi)
error = np.random.normal(0.1, 0.02, size=y.shape)
y += np.random.normal(0, 0.1, size=y.shape)

plt.plot(x, y, 'k-')
plt.fill_between(x, y-error, y+error)
plt.show()

enter image description here

See also the matplotlib examples.


This is basically the same answer provided by Evert, but extended to show-off some cool options of fill_between

enter image description here

from matplotlib import pyplot as pl
import numpy as np

pl.clf()
pl.hold(1)

x = np.linspace(0, 30, 100)
y = np.sin(x) * 0.5
pl.plot(x, y, '-k')


x = np.linspace(0, 30, 30)
y = np.sin(x/6*np.pi)
error = np.random.normal(0.1, 0.02, size=y.shape) +.1
y += np.random.normal(0, 0.1, size=y.shape)

pl.plot(x, y, 'k', color='#CC4F1B')
pl.fill_between(x, y-error, y+error,
    alpha=0.5, edgecolor='#CC4F1B', facecolor='#FF9848')

y = np.cos(x/6*np.pi)    
error = np.random.rand(len(y)) * 0.5
y += np.random.normal(0, 0.1, size=y.shape)
pl.plot(x, y, 'k', color='#1B2ACC')
pl.fill_between(x, y-error, y+error,
    alpha=0.2, edgecolor='#1B2ACC', facecolor='#089FFF',
    linewidth=4, linestyle='dashdot', antialiased=True)



y = np.cos(x/6*np.pi)  + np.sin(x/3*np.pi)  
error = np.random.rand(len(y)) * 0.5
y += np.random.normal(0, 0.1, size=y.shape)
pl.plot(x, y, 'k', color='#3F7F4C')
pl.fill_between(x, y-error, y+error,
    alpha=1, edgecolor='#3F7F4C', facecolor='#7EFF99',
    linewidth=0)



pl.show()