Remove the extra plot in the matplotlib subplot
Question:
I want to plot 5 data frames in a 2 by 3 setting (i.e. 2 rows and 3 columns). This is my code: However there is an extra empty plot in the 6th position (second row and third column) which I want to get rid of it. I am wondering how I could remove it so that I have three plots in the first row and two plots in the second row.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=3)
fig.set_figheight(8)
fig.set_figwidth(15)
df[2].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[0,0]); axes[0,0].set_title('2')
df[4].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[0,1]); axes[0,1].set_title('4')
df[6].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[0,2]); axes[0,2].set_title('6')
df[8].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[1,0]); axes[1,0].set_title('8')
df[10].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[1,1]); axes[1,1].set_title('10')
plt.setp(axes, xticks=np.arange(len(observations)), xticklabels=map(str,observations),
yticks=[0,1])
fig.tight_layout()
Answers:
Try this:
fig.delaxes(axes[1][2])
A much more flexible way to create subplots is the fig.add_axes()
method. The parameters is a list of rect coordinates: fig.add_axes([x, y, xsize, ysize])
. The values are relative to the canvas size, so an xsize
of 0.5
means the subplot has half the width of the window.
Alternatively, using axes
method set_axis_off()
:
axes[1,2].set_axis_off()
If you know which plot to remove, you can give the index and remove like this:
axes.flat[-1].set_visible(False) # to remove last plot
Turn off all axes, and turn them on one-by-one only when you’re plotting on them. Then you don’t need to know the index ahead of time, e.g.:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
columns = ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=len(columns))
for ax in axes:
ax.set_axis_off()
for c, ax in zip(columns, axes):
if c == "d":
print("I didn't actually need 'd'")
continue
ax.set_axis_on()
ax.set_title(c)
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()
Previous solutions do not work with sharex=True
. If you have that, please consider the solution below, it also deals with 2 dimensional subplot layout.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
columns = ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
fig, axes = plt.subplots(4,1, sharex=True)
plotted = {}
for c, ax in zip(columns, axes.ravel()):
plotted[ax] = 0
if c == "d":
print("I didn't actually need 'd'")
continue
ax.plot([1,2,3,4,5,6,5,4,6,7])
ax.set_title(c)
plotted[ax] = 1
if axes.ndim == 2:
for a, axs in enumerate(reversed(axes)):
for b, ax in enumerate(reversed(axs)):
if plotted[ax] == 0:
# one can use get_lines(), get_images(), findobj() for the propose
ax.set_axis_off()
# now find the plot above
axes[-2-a][-1-b].xaxis.set_tick_params(which='both', labelbottom=True)
else:
break # usually only the last few plots are empty, but delete this line if not the case
else:
for i, ax in enumerate(reversed(axes)):
if plotted[ax] == 0:
ax.set_axis_off()
axes[-2-i].xaxis.set_tick_params(which='both', labelbottom=True)
# should also work with horizontal subplots
# all modifications to the tick params should happen after this
else:
break
plt.show()
2 dimensional fig, axes = plot.subplots(2,2, sharex=True)
A lazier version of Johannes’s answers is to remove any axes that haven’t had data added to them. This avoids maintaining a specification of which axes to remove.
[fig.delaxes(ax) for ax in axes.flatten() if not ax.has_data()]
I want to plot 5 data frames in a 2 by 3 setting (i.e. 2 rows and 3 columns). This is my code: However there is an extra empty plot in the 6th position (second row and third column) which I want to get rid of it. I am wondering how I could remove it so that I have three plots in the first row and two plots in the second row.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=3)
fig.set_figheight(8)
fig.set_figwidth(15)
df[2].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[0,0]); axes[0,0].set_title('2')
df[4].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[0,1]); axes[0,1].set_title('4')
df[6].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[0,2]); axes[0,2].set_title('6')
df[8].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[1,0]); axes[1,0].set_title('8')
df[10].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[1,1]); axes[1,1].set_title('10')
plt.setp(axes, xticks=np.arange(len(observations)), xticklabels=map(str,observations),
yticks=[0,1])
fig.tight_layout()
Try this:
fig.delaxes(axes[1][2])
A much more flexible way to create subplots is the fig.add_axes()
method. The parameters is a list of rect coordinates: fig.add_axes([x, y, xsize, ysize])
. The values are relative to the canvas size, so an xsize
of 0.5
means the subplot has half the width of the window.
Alternatively, using axes
method set_axis_off()
:
axes[1,2].set_axis_off()
If you know which plot to remove, you can give the index and remove like this:
axes.flat[-1].set_visible(False) # to remove last plot
Turn off all axes, and turn them on one-by-one only when you’re plotting on them. Then you don’t need to know the index ahead of time, e.g.:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
columns = ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=len(columns))
for ax in axes:
ax.set_axis_off()
for c, ax in zip(columns, axes):
if c == "d":
print("I didn't actually need 'd'")
continue
ax.set_axis_on()
ax.set_title(c)
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()
Previous solutions do not work with sharex=True
. If you have that, please consider the solution below, it also deals with 2 dimensional subplot layout.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
columns = ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
fig, axes = plt.subplots(4,1, sharex=True)
plotted = {}
for c, ax in zip(columns, axes.ravel()):
plotted[ax] = 0
if c == "d":
print("I didn't actually need 'd'")
continue
ax.plot([1,2,3,4,5,6,5,4,6,7])
ax.set_title(c)
plotted[ax] = 1
if axes.ndim == 2:
for a, axs in enumerate(reversed(axes)):
for b, ax in enumerate(reversed(axs)):
if plotted[ax] == 0:
# one can use get_lines(), get_images(), findobj() for the propose
ax.set_axis_off()
# now find the plot above
axes[-2-a][-1-b].xaxis.set_tick_params(which='both', labelbottom=True)
else:
break # usually only the last few plots are empty, but delete this line if not the case
else:
for i, ax in enumerate(reversed(axes)):
if plotted[ax] == 0:
ax.set_axis_off()
axes[-2-i].xaxis.set_tick_params(which='both', labelbottom=True)
# should also work with horizontal subplots
# all modifications to the tick params should happen after this
else:
break
plt.show()
2 dimensional fig, axes = plot.subplots(2,2, sharex=True)
A lazier version of Johannes’s answers is to remove any axes that haven’t had data added to them. This avoids maintaining a specification of which axes to remove.
[fig.delaxes(ax) for ax in axes.flatten() if not ax.has_data()]