### Navigation

- index
- modules |
- next |
- previous |
- home|
- examples|
- tutorials|
- pyplot|
- docs »
- The Matplotlib API »
- matplotlib.pyplot »

# matplotlib.pyplot.scatter

`matplotlib.pyplot.``scatter`(x, y, s=None, c=None, marker=None, cmap=None, norm=None, vmin=None, vmax=None, alpha=None, linewidths=None, verts=None, edgecolors=None, hold=None, data=None, **kwargs)

  Make a scatter plot of `x` vs `y`.

  Marker size is scaled by `s` and marker color is mapped to `c`.

  Parameters: | x, y : array_like, shape (n, ) Input data s : scalar or array_like, shape (n, ), optional size in points^2. Default is `rcParams['lines.markersize'] ** 2`. c : color, sequence, or sequence of color, optional, default: ‘b’ `c` can be a single color format string, or a sequence of color specifications of length `N`, or a sequence of `N` numbers to be mapped to colors using the `cmap` and `norm` specified via kwargs (see below). Note that `c` should not be a single numeric RGB or RGBA sequence because that is indistinguishable from an array of values to be colormapped. `c` can be a 2-D array in which the rows are RGB or RGBA, however, including the case of a single row to specify the same color for all points. marker : `MarkerStyle`, optional, default: ‘o’ See `markers` for more information on the different styles of markers scatter supports. `marker` can be either an instance of the class or the text shorthand for a particular marker. cmap : `Colormap`, optional, default: None A `Colormap` instance or registered name. `cmap` is only used if `c` is an array of floats. If None, defaults to rc `image.cmap`. norm : `Normalize`, optional, default: None A `Normalize` instance is used to scale luminance data to 0, 1. `norm` is only used if `c` is an array of floats. If `None`, use the default `normalize()`. vmin, vmax : scalar, optional, default: None `vmin` and `vmax` are used in conjunction with `norm` to normalize luminance data. If either are `None`, the min and max of the color array is used. Note if you pass a `norm` instance, your settings for `vmin` and `vmax` will be ignored. alpha : scalar, optional, default: None The alpha blending value, between 0 (transparent) and 1 (opaque) linewidths : scalar or array_like, optional, default: None If None, defaults to (lines.linewidth,). verts : sequence of (x, y), optional If `marker` is None, these vertices will be used to construct the marker. The center of the marker is located at (0,0) in normalized units. The overall marker is rescaled by `s`. edgecolors : color or sequence of color, optional, default: None If None, defaults to ‘face’ If ‘face’, the edge color will always be the same as the face color. If it is ‘none’, the patch boundary will not be drawn. For non-filled markers, the `edgecolors` kwarg is ignored and forced to ‘face’ internally.
  Returns: | paths : `PathCollection`
  Other Parameters:
  | **kwargs : `Collection` properties

  See also

  `plot`
    to plot scatter plots when markers are identical in size and color

  Notes

  - The `plot` function will be faster for scatterplots where markers don’t vary in size or color.

  - Any or all of `x`, `y`, `s`, and `c` may be masked arrays, in which case all masks will be combined and only unmasked points will be plotted.

    Fundamentally, scatter works with 1-D arrays; `x`, `y`, `s`, and `c` may be input as 2-D arrays, but within scatter they will be flattened. The exception is `c`, which will be flattened only if its size matches the size of `x` and `y`.

  Note

  In addition to the above described arguments, this function can take a data keyword argument. If such a data argument is given, the following arguments are replaced by data[<arg>]:

  - All arguments with the following names: ‘c’, ‘color’, ‘edgecolors’, ‘facecolor’, ‘facecolors’, ‘linewidths’, ‘s’, ‘x’, ‘y’.

## Examples using `matplotlib.pyplot.scatter`

Griddata Demo

Demonstration of advanced quiver and quiverkey functions

Scatter Masked

Scatter Profile

Scatter Star Poly

Scatter Symbol

Hyperlinks

Zorder Demo

Scatter plot

Pyplot tutorial