Set variable point size in matplotlib

Question:

I want to set a variable marker size in a scatter plot. This is my code:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

from os import getcwd
from os.path import join, realpath, dirname

mypath = realpath(join(getcwd(), dirname(__file__)))
myfile = 'b34.dat'

data = np.loadtxt(join(mypath,myfile),
     usecols=(1,2,3),
     unpack=True)

fig = plt.figure()
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(111)
ax1.plot(data[0], data[1], 'bo', markersize=data[2], label='the data')
plt.show()

The file I’m importing has three columns. Columns 1 and 2 are stored in data[0] and data[1]) are the (x,y) values and I want each point to have a size relative to column 3 (ie: data[2])

I’m using the Canopy IDE by the way.

Asked By: Gabriel

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Answers:

help(plt.plot) shows

  markersize or ms: float         

so it appears plt.plot does not allow the markersize to be an array.

You could use plt.scatter however:

ax1.scatter(data[0], data[1], marker='o', c='b', s=data[2], label='the data')

PS. You can also verify that plt.plot‘s markersize must be a float by searching for “markersize” in the official documentation.

Answered By: unutbu