Axes class

class matplotlib.axes.Axes(fig, rect, facecolor=None, frameon=True, sharex=None, sharey=None, label='', xscale=None, yscale=None, axisbg=None, **kwargs)

The Axes contains most of the figure elements: Axis, Tick, Line2D, Text, Polygon, etc., and sets the coordinate system.

The Axes instance supports callbacks through a callbacks attribute which is a CallbackRegistry instance. The events you can connect to are ‘xlim_changed’ and ‘ylim_changed’ and the callback will be called with func(ax) where ax is the Axes instance.

Plotting

Basic

Axes.plot	Plot lines and/or markers to the Axes.
Axes.errorbar	Plot an errorbar graph.
Axes.scatter	Make a scatter plot of x vs y, where x and y are sequence like objects of the same length.
Axes.plot_date	A plot with data that contains dates.
Axes.step	Make a step plot.
Axes.loglog	Make a plot with log scaling on both the x and y axis.
Axes.semilogx	Make a plot with log scaling on the x axis.
Axes.semilogy	Make a plot with log scaling on the y axis.
Axes.fill_between	Make filled polygons between two curves.
Axes.fill_betweenx	Make filled polygons between two horizontal curves.
Axes.bar	Make a bar plot.
Axes.barh	Make a horizontal bar plot.
Axes.stem	Create a stem plot.
Axes.eventplot	Plot identical parallel lines at specific positions.
Axes.pie	Plot a pie chart.
Axes.stackplot	Draws a stacked area plot.
Axes.broken_barh	Plot horizontal bars.
Axes.vlines	Plot vertical lines.
Axes.hlines	Plot horizontal lines at each y from xmin to xmax.
Axes.fill	Plot filled polygons.

Spans

Axes.axhline	Add a horizontal line across the axis.
Axes.axhspan	Add a horizontal span (rectangle) across the axis.
Axes.axvline	Add a vertical line across the axes.
Axes.axvspan	Add a vertical span (rectangle) across the axes.

Spectral

Axes.acorr	Plot the autocorrelation of x.
Axes.angle_spectrum	Plot the angle spectrum.
Axes.cohere	Plot the coherence between x and y.
Axes.csd	Plot the cross-spectral density.
Axes.magnitude_spectrum	Plot the magnitude spectrum.
Axes.phase_spectrum	Plot the phase spectrum.
Axes.psd	Plot the power spectral density.
Axes.specgram	Plot a spectrogram.
Axes.xcorr	Plot the cross correlation between x and y.

Statistics

Axes.boxplot	Make a box and whisker plot.
Axes.violinplot	Make a violin plot.
Axes.violin	Drawing function for violin plots.
Axes.bxp	Drawing function for box and whisker plots.

Binned

Axes.hexbin	Make a hexagonal binning plot.
Axes.hist	Plot a histogram.
Axes.hist2d	Make a 2D histogram plot.

Contours

Axes.clabel	Label a contour plot.
Axes.contour	Plot contours.
Axes.contourf	Plot contours.

Array

Axes.imshow	Display an image on the axes.
Axes.matshow	Plot a matrix or array as an image.
Axes.pcolor	Create a pseudocolor plot of a 2-D array.
Axes.pcolorfast	pseudocolor plot of a 2-D array
Axes.pcolormesh	Plot a quadrilateral mesh.
Axes.spy	Plot the sparsity pattern on a 2-D array.

Unstructured Triangles

Axes.tripcolor	Create a pseudocolor plot of an unstructured triangular grid.
Axes.triplot	Draw a unstructured triangular grid as lines and/or markers.
Axes.tricontour	Draw contours on an unstructured triangular grid.
Axes.tricontourf	Draw contours on an unstructured triangular grid.

Text and Annotations

Axes.annotate	Annotate the point xy with text s.
Axes.text	Add text to the axes.
Axes.table	Add a table to the current axes.
Axes.arrow	Add an arrow to the axes.

Fields

Axes.barbs	Plot a 2-D field of barbs.
Axes.quiver	Plot a 2-D field of arrows.
Axes.quiverkey	Add a key to a quiver plot.
Axes.streamplot	Draws streamlines of a vector flow.

Clearing

Axes.cla	Clear the current axes.
Axes.clear	clear the axes

Appearance

Axes.axis	Set axis properties.
Axes.set_axis_off	turn off the axis
Axes.set_axis_on	turn on the axis
Axes.set_frame_on	Set whether the axes rectangle patch is drawn
Axes.get_frame_on	Get whether the axes rectangle patch is drawn
Axes.set_axisbelow	Set whether the axis ticks and gridlines are above or below most
Axes.get_axisbelow	Get whether axis below is true or not
Axes.grid	Turn the axes grids on or off.
Axes.get_axis_bgcolor	Deprecated since version 2.0.
Axes.get_facecolor
Axes.get_fc
Axes.set_facecolor
Axes.set_fc
Axes.set_axis_bgcolor	Deprecated since version 2.0.

Property cycle

Axes.set_prop_cycle	Set the property cycle for any future plot commands on this Axes.
Axes.set_color_cycle	Set the color cycle for any future plot commands on this Axes.

Axis / limits

Axes.get_yaxis	Return the YAxis instance
Axes.get_xaxis	Return the XAxis instance

Axis Limits and direction

Axes.invert_xaxis	Invert the x-axis.
Axes.invert_yaxis	Invert the y-axis.
Axes.xaxis_inverted	Returns True if the x-axis is inverted.
Axes.yaxis_inverted	Returns True if the y-axis is inverted.
Axes.set_xlim	Set the data limits for the xaxis
Axes.set_ylim	Set the data limits for the yaxis
Axes.get_ylim	Get the y-axis range [bottom, top]
Axes.get_xlim	Get the x-axis range [left, right]
Axes.update_datalim	Update the data lim bbox with seq of xy tups or equiv.
Axes.update_datalim_bounds	Update the datalim to include the given
Axes.update_datalim_numerix	Update the data lim bbox with seq of xy tups
Axes.set_ybound	Set the lower and upper numerical bounds of the y-axis.
Axes.set_xbound	Set the lower and upper numerical bounds of the x-axis.
Axes.get_ybound	Return y-axis numerical bounds in the form of
Axes.get_xbound	Returns the x-axis numerical bounds

Axis Labels, title, and legend

Axes.get_xlabel	Get the xlabel text string.
Axes.get_ylabel	Get the ylabel text string.
Axes.set_xlabel	Set the label for the xaxis.
Axes.set_ylabel	Set the label for the yaxis
Axes.set_title	Set a title for the axes.
Axes.get_title	Get an axes title.
Axes.legend	Places a legend on the axes.
Axes.get_legend	Return the legend.Legend instance, or None if no legend is defined
Axes.get_legend_handles_labels	Return handles and labels for legend

Axis scales

Axes.set_xscale	Set the x-axis scale
Axes.get_xscale	Return the xaxis scale string: linear, log, logit, symlog
Axes.get_yscale	Return the yaxis scale string: linear, log, logit, symlog
Axes.set_yscale	Set the y-axis scale

Autoscaling

Axes.relim	Recompute the data limits based on current artists.
Axes.autoscale	Autoscale the axis view to the data (toggle).
Axes.autoscale_view	Autoscale the view limits using the data limits.
Axes.get_autoscale_on	Get whether autoscaling is applied for both axes on plot commands
Axes.set_autoscale_on	Set whether autoscaling is applied on plot commands
Axes.get_autoscalex_on	Get whether autoscaling for the x-axis is applied on plot commands
Axes.set_autoscalex_on	Set whether autoscaling for the x-axis is applied on plot commands
Axes.get_autoscaley_on	Get whether autoscaling for the y-axis is applied on plot commands
Axes.set_autoscaley_on	Set whether autoscaling for the y-axis is applied on plot commands

Margins

Axes.margins	Set or retrieve autoscaling margins.
Axes.set_margins	Set the dictionary describing whether a margin should be applied on each of the sides (top, bottom, left and right).
Axes.get_margins	Returns a dictionary describing whether a margin should be applied on each of the sides (top, bottom, left and right).
Axes.bottom_margin	Get whether a margin should be applied to the bottom of the Artist.
Axes.get_bottom_margin	Get whether a margin should be applied to the bottom of the Artist.
Axes.get_left_margin	Get whether a margin should be applied to the left of the Artist.
Axes.get_right_margin	Get whether a margin should be applied to the right of the Artist.
Axes.get_top_margin	Get whether a margin should be applied to the top of the Artist.
Axes.left_margin	Get whether a margin should be applied to the left of the Artist.
Axes.right_margin	Get whether a margin should be applied to the right of the Artist.
Axes.set_bottom_margin	Set whether a margin should be applied to the bottom of the Artist.
Axes.set_left_margin	Set whether a margin should be applied to the left of the Artist.
Axes.set_top_margin	Set whether a margin should be applied to the top of the Artist.
Axes.set_right_margin	Set whether a margin should be applied to the right of the Artist.
Axes.set_xmargin	Set padding of X data limits prior to autoscaling.
Axes.top_margin	Get whether a margin should be applied to the top of the Artist.

Aspect ratio

Axes.apply_aspect	Use _aspect() and _adjustable() to modify the axes box or the view limits.
Axes.get_aspect
Axes.set_aspect	aspect
Axes.get_adjustable
Axes.set_adjustable	ACCEPTS: [ ‘box’ | ‘datalim’ | ‘box-forced’]

Ticks and tick labels

Axes.xaxis_date	Sets up x-axis ticks and labels that treat the x data as dates.
Axes.yaxis_date	Sets up y-axis ticks and labels that treat the y data as dates.
Axes.get_xmajorticklabels	Get the xtick labels as a list of Text instances.
Axes.get_xminorticklabels	Get the x minor tick labels as a list of matplotlib.text.Text instances.
Axes.get_xticklabels	Get the x tick labels as a list of Text instances.
Axes.get_xticklines	Get the xtick lines as a list of Line2D instances
Axes.get_xticks	Return the x ticks as a list of locations
Axes.get_ymajorticklabels	Get the major y tick labels as a list of Text instances.
Axes.get_yminorticklabels	Get the minor y tick labels as a list of Text instances.
Axes.get_yticklabels	Get the x tick labels as a list of Text instances.
Axes.get_yticklines	Get the ytick lines as a list of Line2D instances
Axes.get_yticks	Return the y ticks as a list of locations
Axes.minorticks_off	Remove minor ticks from the axes.
Axes.minorticks_on	Add autoscaling minor ticks to the axes.
Axes.set_xticklabels	Set the xtick labels with list of strings labels
Axes.set_xticks	Set the x ticks with list of ticks
Axes.set_ymargin	Set padding of Y data limits prior to autoscaling.
Axes.set_yticklabels	Set the y tick labels with list of strings labels
Axes.set_yticks	Set the y ticks with list of ticks
Axes.get_xgridlines	Get the x grid lines as a list of Line2D instances
Axes.get_ygridlines	Get the y grid lines as a list of Line2D instances
Axes.ticklabel_format	Change the ScalarFormatter used by default for linear axes.
Axes.tick_params	Change the appearance of ticks and tick labels.
Axes.locator_params	Control behavior of tick locators.

Units

Axes.convert_xunits	For artists in an axes, if the xaxis has units support,
Axes.convert_yunits	For artists in an axes, if the yaxis has units support,
Axes.have_units	Return True if units are set on the x or y axes

Adding Artists

Axes.add_artist	Add any Artist to the axes.
Axes.add_collection	Add a Collection instance to the axes.
Axes.add_container	Add a Container instance to the axes.
Axes.add_image	Add a AxesImage to the axes.
Axes.add_line	Add a Line2D to the list of plot
Axes.add_patch	Add a Patch p to the list of axes patches; the clipbox will be set to the Axes clipping box.
Axes.add_table	Add a Table instance to the

Twinning

Axes.twinx	Create a twin Axes sharing the xaxis
Axes.twiny	Create a twin Axes sharing the yaxis
Axes.get_shared_x_axes	Return a copy of the shared axes Grouper object for x axes
Axes.get_shared_y_axes	Return a copy of the shared axes Grouper object for y axes

Axes Position

Axes.get_anchor
Axes.set_anchor	anchor
Axes.get_axes_locator	return axes_locator
Axes.set_axes_locator	set axes_locator
Axes.reset_position	Make the original position the active position
Axes.get_position	Return the a copy of the axes rectangle as a Bbox
Axes.set_position	Set the axes position

Async/Event based

Axes.stale	If the artist is ‘stale’ and needs to be re-drawn for the output to match the internal state of the artist.
Axes.pchanged	Fire an event when property changed, calling all of the registered callbacks.
Axes.add_callback	Adds a callback function that will be called whenever one of the Artist‘s properties changes.
Axes.remove_callback	Remove a callback based on its id.

Interactive

Axes.can_pan	Return True if this axes supports any pan/zoom button functionality.
Axes.can_zoom	Return True if this axes supports the zoom box button functionality.
Axes.get_navigate	Get whether the axes responds to navigation commands
Axes.set_navigate	Set whether the axes responds to navigation toolbar commands
Axes.get_navigate_mode	Get the navigation toolbar button status: ‘PAN’, ‘ZOOM’, or None
Axes.set_navigate_mode	Set the navigation toolbar button status;
Axes.start_pan	Called when a pan operation has started.
Axes.drag_pan	Called when the mouse moves during a pan operation.
Axes.end_pan	Called when a pan operation completes (when the mouse button
Axes.format_coord	Return a format string formatting the x, y coord
Axes.format_cursor_data	Return cursor data string formatted.
Axes.format_xdata	Return x string formatted.
Axes.format_ydata	Return y string formatted.
Axes.hitlist	List the children of the artist which contain the mouse event event.
Axes.mouseover
Axes.in_axes	Return True if the given mouseevent (in display coords)
Axes.pick	Trigger pick event
Axes.pickable	Return True if Artist is pickable.
Axes.get_picker	Return the picker object used by this artist
Axes.set_picker	Set the epsilon for picking used by this artist
Axes.set_contains	Replace the contains test used by this artist.
Axes.get_contains	Return the _contains test used by the artist, or None for default.
Axes.contains	Test whether the mouse event occured in the axes.
Axes.contains_point	Returns True if the point (tuple of x,y) is inside the axes (the area defined by the its patch).
Axes.get_cursor_data	Get the cursor data for a given event.
Axes.get_cursor_props	Return the cursor propertiess as a (linewidth, color)
Axes.set_cursor_props	Set the cursor property as

Children

Axes.get_children	return a list of child artists
Axes.get_images	return a list of Axes images contained by the Axes
Axes.get_lines	Return a list of lines contained by the Axes
Axes.findobj	Find artist objects.

Drawing

Axes.draw	Draw everything (plot lines, axes, labels)
Axes.draw_artist	This method can only be used after an initial draw which caches the renderer.
Axes.redraw_in_frame	This method can only be used after an initial draw which caches the renderer.
Axes.get_renderer_cache
Axes.get_rasterization_zorder	Get zorder value below which artists will be rasterized
Axes.set_rasterization_zorder	Set zorder value below which artists will be rasterized.
Axes.get_window_extent	get the axes bounding box in display space; args and
Axes.get_tightbbox	Return the tight bounding box of the axes.

Bulk property manipulation

Axes.set	A property batch setter.
Axes.update	Update the properties of this Artist from the dictionary prop.
Axes.properties	return a dictionary mapping property name -> value for all Artist props
Axes.update_from	Copy properties from other to self.

General Artist Properties

Axes.set_alpha	Set the alpha value used for blending - not supported on all backends.
Axes.set_animated	Set the artist’s animation state.
Axes.set_clip_box	Set the artist’s clip Bbox.
Axes.set_clip_on	Set whether artist uses clipping.
Axes.set_clip_path	Set the artist’s clip path, which may be:
Axes.set_gid	Sets the (group) id for the artist
Axes.set_label	Set the label to s for auto legend.
Axes.set_url	Sets the url for the artist
Axes.set_visible	Set the artist’s visiblity.
Axes.set_zorder	Set the zorder for the artist.
Axes.set_rasterized	Force rasterized (bitmap) drawing in vector backend output.
Axes.set_sketch_params	Sets the sketch parameters.
Axes.set_agg_filter	set agg_filter fuction.
Axes.set_snap	Sets the snap setting which may be:
Axes.set_transform	Set the Transform instance used by this artist.
Axes.set_path_effects	set path_effects, which should be a list of instances of
Axes.get_agg_filter	return filter function to be used for agg filter
Axes.get_sketch_params	Returns the sketch parameters for the artist.
Axes.get_alpha	Return the alpha value used for blending - not supported on all
Axes.get_animated	Return the artist’s animated state
Axes.get_clip_box	Return artist clipbox
Axes.get_clip_on	Return whether artist uses clipping
Axes.get_clip_path	Return artist clip path
Axes.get_gid	Returns the group id
Axes.get_label	Get the label used for this artist in the legend.
Axes.get_url	Returns the url
Axes.get_visible	Return the artist’s visiblity
Axes.get_zorder	Return the Artist‘s zorder.
Axes.get_rasterized	return True if the artist is to be rasterized
Axes.get_transform	Return the Transform instance used by this artist.
Axes.get_snap	Returns the snap setting which may be:
Axes.get_path_effects
Axes.axes	The Axes instance the artist resides in, or None.
Axes.get_axes	Return the Axes instance the artist resides in, or None.
Axes.set_axes	Set the Axes instance in which the artist resides, if any.
Axes.set_figure	Set the class:Axes figure
Axes.get_figure	Return the Figure instance the artist belongs to.

Artist Methods

Axes.is_figure_set	Returns True if the artist is assigned to a Figure.
Axes.remove	Remove the artist from the figure if possible.
Axes.is_transform_set	Returns True if Artist has a transform explicitly set.

Projection

Methods used by Axis that must be overridden for non-rectilinear Axes.

Axes.name
Axes.get_xaxis_transform	Get the transformation used for drawing x-axis labels, ticks and gridlines.
Axes.get_yaxis_transform	Get the transformation used for drawing y-axis labels, ticks and gridlines.
Axes.get_data_ratio	Returns the aspect ratio of the raw data.
Axes.get_data_ratio_log	Returns the aspect ratio of the raw data in log scale.
Axes.get_xaxis_text1_transform	Get the transformation used for drawing x-axis labels, which will add the given amount of padding (in points) between the axes and the label.
Axes.get_xaxis_text2_transform	Get the transformation used for drawing the secondary x-axis labels, which will add the given amount of padding (in points) between the axes and the label.
Axes.get_yaxis_text1_transform	Get the transformation used for drawing y-axis labels, which will add the given amount of padding (in points) between the axes and the label.
Axes.get_yaxis_text2_transform	Get the transformation used for drawing the secondary y-axis labels, which will add the given amount of padding (in points) between the axes and the label.

Other

Axes.zorder
Axes.aname
Axes.get_default_bbox_extra_artists
Axes.get_transformed_clip_path_and_affine	Return the clip path with the non-affine part of its transformation applied, and the remaining affine part of its transformation.
Axes.has_data	Return True if any artists have been added to axes.
Axes.hold	Set the hold state
Axes.ishold	return the HOLD status of the axes

Inheritance