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# Plotting categorical variables

How to use categorical variables in Matplotlib.

Many times you want to create a plot that uses categorical variables in Matplotlib. Matplotlib allows you to pass categorical variables directly to many plotting functions, which we demonstrate below.

    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

    data = {'apples': 10, 'oranges': 15, 'lemons': 5, 'limes': 20}
    names = list(data.keys())
    values = list(data.values())

    fig, axs = plt.subplots(1, 3, figsize=(9, 3), sharey=True)
    axs[0].bar(names, values)
    axs[1].scatter(names, values)
    axs[2].plot(names, values)
    fig.suptitle('Categorical Plotting')

This works on both axes:

    cat = ["bored", "happy", "bored", "bored", "happy", "bored"]
    dog = ["happy", "happy", "happy", "happy", "bored", "bored"]
    activity = ["combing", "drinking", "feeding", "napping", "playing", "washing"]

    fig, ax = plt.subplots()
    ax.plot(activity, dog, label="dog")
    ax.plot(activity, cat, label="cat")
    ax.legend()

    plt.show()

Total running time of the script: ( 0 minutes 0.101 seconds)

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