Matplotlib has two interfaces. See :ref:`api_interfaces` for a more detailed description of both and their recommended use cases.
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**Axes interface** (object-based, explicit)
create a `.Figure` and one or more `~.axes.Axes` objects, then *explicitly* use
methods on these objects to add data, configure limits, set labels etc.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
API:
- `~.pyplot.subplots`: create Figure and Axes
- :mod:`~matplotlib.axes`: add data, limits, labels etc.
- `.Figure`: for figure-level methods
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Example:
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fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(x, y)
ax.set_title("Sample plot")
plt.show()
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**pyplot interface** (function-based, implicit)
consists of functions in the `.pyplot` module. Figure and Axes are manipulated
through these functions and are only *implicitly* present in the background.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
API:
- `matplotlib.pyplot`
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Example:
.. code-block:: python
:class: api-interface-example
plt.plot(x, y)
plt.title("Sample plot")
plt.show()
Alphabetical list of modules:
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 matplotlib_configuration_api.rst afm_api.rst animation_api.rst artist_api.rst axes_api.rst axis_api.rst backend_bases_api.rst backend_managers_api.rst backend_tools_api.rst index_backend_api.rst bezier_api.rst category_api.rst cbook_api.rst cm_api.rst collections_api.rst colorbar_api.rst colors_api.rst container_api.rst contour_api.rst dates_api.rst docstring_api.rst dviread.rst figure_api.rst font_manager_api.rst ft2font.rst gridspec_api.rst hatch_api.rst image_api.rst layout_engine_api.rst legend_api.rst legend_handler_api.rst lines_api.rst markers_api.rst mathtext_api.rst mlab_api.rst offsetbox_api.rst patches_api.rst path_api.rst patheffects_api.rst pyplot_summary.rst projections_api.rst quiver_api.rst rcsetup_api.rst sankey_api.rst scale_api.rst sphinxext_mathmpl_api.rst sphinxext_plot_directive_api.rst sphinxext_figmpl_directive_api.rst spines_api.rst style_api.rst table_api.rst testing_api.rst text_api.rst texmanager_api.rst ticker_api.rst tight_bbox_api.rst tight_layout_api.rst transformations.rst tri_api.rst type1font.rst typing_api.rst units_api.rst widgets_api.rst _api_api.rst _enums_api.rst toolkits/mplot3d.rst toolkits/axes_grid1.rst toolkits/axisartist.rst pylab.rst