lines

matplotlib.lines

This module contains all the 2D line class which can draw with a variety of line styles, markers and colors.

class matplotlib.lines.Line2D(xdata, ydata, linewidth=None, linestyle=None, color=None, marker=None, markersize=None, markeredgewidth=None, markeredgecolor=None, markerfacecolor=None, markerfacecoloralt='none', fillstyle=None, antialiased=None, dash_capstyle=None, solid_capstyle=None, dash_joinstyle=None, solid_joinstyle=None, pickradius=5, drawstyle=None, markevery=None, **kwargs)

Bases: matplotlib.artist.Artist

A line - the line can have both a solid linestyle connecting all the vertices, and a marker at each vertex. Additionally, the drawing of the solid line is influenced by the drawstyle, e.g., one can create “stepped” lines in various styles.

Create a Line2D instance with x and y data in sequences xdata, ydata.

The kwargs are Line2D properties:

Property	Description
agg_filter	unknown
alpha	float (0.0 transparent through 1.0 opaque)
animated	[True | False]
antialiased or aa	[True | False]
axes	an Axes instance
bottom_margin	unknown
clip_box	a matplotlib.transforms.Bbox instance
clip_on	[True | False]
clip_path	[ (Path, Transform) | Patch | None ]
color or c	any matplotlib color
contains	a callable function
dash_capstyle	[‘butt’ | ‘round’ | ‘projecting’]
dash_joinstyle	[‘miter’ | ‘round’ | ‘bevel’]
dashes	sequence of on/off ink in points
drawstyle	[‘default’ | ‘steps’ | ‘steps-pre’ | ‘steps-mid’ | ‘steps-post’]
figure	a matplotlib.figure.Figure instance
fillstyle	[‘full’ | ‘left’ | ‘right’ | ‘bottom’ | ‘top’ | ‘none’]
gid	an id string
label	string or anything printable with ‘%s’ conversion.
left_margin	unknown
linestyle or ls	[‘solid’ | ‘dashed’, ‘dashdot’, ‘dotted’ | (offset, on-off-dash-seq) | '-' | '--' | '-.' | ':' | 'None' | ' ' | '']
linewidth or lw	float value in points
margins	unknown
marker	A valid marker style
markeredgecolor or mec	any matplotlib color
markeredgewidth or mew	float value in points
markerfacecolor or mfc	any matplotlib color
markerfacecoloralt or mfcalt	any matplotlib color
markersize or ms	float
markevery	[None | int | length-2 tuple of int | slice | list/array of int | float | length-2 tuple of float]
path_effects	unknown
picker	float distance in points or callable pick function fn(artist, event)
pickradius	float distance in points
rasterized	[True | False | None]
right_margin	unknown
sketch_params	unknown
snap	unknown
solid_capstyle	[‘butt’ | ‘round’ | ‘projecting’]
solid_joinstyle	[‘miter’ | ‘round’ | ‘bevel’]
top_margin	unknown
transform	a matplotlib.transforms.Transform instance
url	a url string
visible	[True | False]
xdata	1D array
ydata	1D array
zorder	any number

See set_linestyle() for a decription of the line styles, set_marker() for a description of the markers, and set_drawstyle() for a description of the draw styles.

axes

The Axes instance the artist resides in, or None.

contains(mouseevent)

Test whether the mouse event occurred on the line. The pick radius determines the precision of the location test (usually within five points of the value). Use get_pickradius() or set_pickradius() to view or modify it.

Returns True if any values are within the radius along with {'ind': pointlist}, where pointlist is the set of points within the radius.

TODO: sort returned indices by distance

draw(renderer)

draw the Line with renderer unless visibility is False

drawStyleKeys = ['default', 'steps-pre', 'steps-mid', 'steps-post', 'steps']

drawStyles = {'default': '_draw_lines', 'steps-pre': '_draw_steps_pre', 'steps': '_draw_steps_pre', 'steps-mid': '_draw_steps_mid', 'steps-post': '_draw_steps_post'}

fillStyles = ('full', 'left', 'right', 'bottom', 'top', 'none')

filled_markers = ('o', 'v', '^', '<', '>', '8', 's', 'p', '*', 'h', 'H', 'D', 'd')

get_aa()

alias for get_antialiased

get_antialiased()

get_c()

alias for get_color

get_color()

get_dash_capstyle()

Get the cap style for dashed linestyles

get_dash_joinstyle()

Get the join style for dashed linestyles

get_data(orig=True)

Return the xdata, ydata.

If orig is True, return the original data.

get_drawstyle()

get_fillstyle()

return the marker fillstyle

get_linestyle()

get_linewidth()

get_ls()

alias for get_linestyle

get_lw()

alias for get_linewidth

get_marker()

get_markeredgecolor()

get_markeredgewidth()

get_markerfacecolor()

get_markerfacecoloralt()

get_markersize()

get_markevery()

return the markevery setting

get_mec()

alias for get_markeredgecolor

get_mew()

alias for get_markeredgewidth

get_mfc()

alias for get_markerfacecolor

get_mfcalt(alt=False)

alias for get_markerfacecoloralt

get_ms()

alias for get_markersize

get_path()

Return the Path object associated with this line.

get_pickradius()

return the pick radius used for containment tests

get_solid_capstyle()

Get the cap style for solid linestyles

get_solid_joinstyle()

Get the join style for solid linestyles

get_window_extent(renderer)

get_xdata(orig=True)

Return the xdata.

If orig is True, return the original data, else the processed data.

get_xydata()

Return the xy data as a Nx2 numpy array.

get_ydata(orig=True)

Return the ydata.

If orig is True, return the original data, else the processed data.

is_dashed()

return True if line is dashstyle

lineStyles = {'': '_draw_nothing', '-': '_draw_solid', ':': '_draw_dotted', '--': '_draw_dashed', ' ': '_draw_nothing', 'None': '_draw_nothing', '-.': '_draw_dash_dot'}

markers = {0: 'tickleft', 1: 'tickright', 2: 'tickup', 3: 'tickdown', 's': 'square', 5: 'caretright', 'v': 'triangle_down', 7: 'caretdown', 8: 'caretleftbase', 'p': 'pentagon', '_': 'hline', 11: 'caretdownbase', '4': 'tri_right', '+': 'plus', 'None': 'nothing', 'H': 'hexagon2', 'D': 'diamond', 'd': 'thin_diamond', 'h': 'hexagon1', ',': 'pixel', 'o': 'circle', '3': 'tri_left', '': 'nothing', 6: 'caretup', 'x': 'x', ' ': 'nothing', None: 'nothing', '.': 'point', '1': 'tri_down', 10: 'caretupbase', '^': 'triangle_up', 9: 'caretrightbase', '8': 'octagon', '*': 'star', '<': 'triangle_left', '>': 'triangle_right', '|': 'vline', '2': 'tri_up', 4: 'caretleft'}

recache(always=False)

recache_always()

set_aa(val)

alias for set_antialiased

set_antialiased(b)

True if line should be drawin with antialiased rendering

ACCEPTS: [True | False]

set_c(val)

alias for set_color

set_color(color)

Set the color of the line

ACCEPTS: any matplotlib color

set_dash_capstyle(s)

Set the cap style for dashed linestyles

ACCEPTS: [‘butt’ | ‘round’ | ‘projecting’]

set_dash_joinstyle(s)

Set the join style for dashed linestyles ACCEPTS: [‘miter’ | ‘round’ | ‘bevel’]

set_dashes(seq)

Set the dash sequence, sequence of dashes with on off ink in points. If seq is empty or if seq = (None, None), the linestyle will be set to solid.

ACCEPTS: sequence of on/off ink in points

set_data(*args)

Set the x and y data

ACCEPTS: 2D array (rows are x, y) or two 1D arrays

set_drawstyle(drawstyle)

Set the drawstyle of the plot

‘default’ connects the points with lines. The steps variants produce step-plots. ‘steps’ is equivalent to ‘steps-pre’ and is maintained for backward-compatibility.

ACCEPTS: [‘default’ | ‘steps’ | ‘steps-pre’ | ‘steps-mid’ |

‘steps-post’]

set_fillstyle(fs)

Set the marker fill style; ‘full’ means fill the whole marker. ‘none’ means no filling; other options are for half-filled markers.

ACCEPTS: [‘full’ | ‘left’ | ‘right’ | ‘bottom’ | ‘top’ | ‘none’]

set_linestyle(ls)

Set the linestyle of the line (also accepts drawstyles, e.g., 'steps--')

linestyle	description
'-' or 'solid'	solid line
'--' or 'dashed'	dashed line
'-.' or 'dashdot'	dash-dotted line
':' or 'dotted'	dotted line
'None'	draw nothing
' '	draw nothing
''	draw nothing

‘steps’ is equivalent to ‘steps-pre’ and is maintained for backward-compatibility.

Alternatively a dash tuple of the following form can be provided:

(offset, onoffseq),

where onoffseq is an even length tuple of on and off ink in points.

ACCEPTS: [‘solid’ | ‘dashed’, ‘dashdot’, ‘dotted’ |

(offset, on-off-dash-seq) | '-' | '--' | '-.' | ':' | 'None' | ' ' | '']

See also

set_drawstyle()

To set the drawing style (stepping) of the plot.

Parameters:

ls : { '-', '--', '-.', ':'} and more see description

The line style.

set_linewidth(w)

Set the line width in points

ACCEPTS: float value in points

set_ls(val)

alias for set_linestyle

set_lw(val)

alias for set_linewidth

set_marker(marker)

Set the line marker

ACCEPTS: A valid marker style

Parameters:

marker: marker style

See markers for full description of possible argument

set_markeredgecolor(ec)

Set the marker edge color

ACCEPTS: any matplotlib color

set_markeredgewidth(ew)

Set the marker edge width in points

ACCEPTS: float value in points

set_markerfacecolor(fc)

Set the marker face color.

ACCEPTS: any matplotlib color

set_markerfacecoloralt(fc)

Set the alternate marker face color.

ACCEPTS: any matplotlib color

set_markersize(sz)

Set the marker size in points

ACCEPTS: float

set_markevery(every)

Set the markevery property to subsample the plot when using markers.

e.g., if every=5, every 5-th marker will be plotted.

ACCEPTS: [None | int | length-2 tuple of int | slice | list/array of int | float | length-2 tuple of float]

Parameters:

every: None | int | length-2 tuple of int | slice | list/array of int |

float | length-2 tuple of float

Which markers to plot.

• every=None, every point will be plotted.
• every=N, every N-th marker will be plotted starting with marker 0.
• every=(start, N), every N-th marker, starting at point start, will be plotted.
• every=slice(start, end, N), every N-th marker, starting at point start, upto but not including point end, will be plotted.
• every=[i, j, m, n], only markers at points i, j, m, and n will be plotted.
• every=0.1, (i.e. a float) then markers will be spaced at approximately equal distances along the line; the distance along the line between markers is determined by multiplying the display-coordinate distance of the axes bounding-box diagonal by the value of every.
• every=(0.5, 0.1) (i.e. a length-2 tuple of float), the same functionality as every=0.1 is exhibited but the first marker will be 0.5 multiplied by the display-cordinate-diagonal-distance along the line.

Notes

Setting the markevery property will only show markers at actual data points. When using float arguments to set the markevery property on irregularly spaced data, the markers will likely not appear evenly spaced because the actual data points do not coincide with the theoretical spacing between markers.

When using a start offset to specify the first marker, the offset will be from the first data point which may be different from the first the visible data point if the plot is zoomed in.

If zooming in on a plot when using float arguments then the actual data points that have markers will change because the distance between markers is always determined from the display-coordinates axes-bounding-box-diagonal regardless of the actual axes data limits.

set_mec(val)

alias for set_markeredgecolor

set_mew(val)

alias for set_markeredgewidth

set_mfc(val)

alias for set_markerfacecolor

set_mfcalt(val)

alias for set_markerfacecoloralt

set_ms(val)

alias for set_markersize

set_picker(p)

Sets the event picker details for the line.

ACCEPTS: float distance in points or callable pick function fn(artist, event)

set_pickradius(d)

Sets the pick radius used for containment tests

ACCEPTS: float distance in points

set_solid_capstyle(s)

Set the cap style for solid linestyles

ACCEPTS: [‘butt’ | ‘round’ | ‘projecting’]

set_solid_joinstyle(s)

Set the join style for solid linestyles ACCEPTS: [‘miter’ | ‘round’ | ‘bevel’]

set_transform(t)

set the Transformation instance used by this artist

ACCEPTS: a matplotlib.transforms.Transform instance

set_xdata(x)

Set the data np.array for x

ACCEPTS: 1D array

set_ydata(y)

Set the data np.array for y

ACCEPTS: 1D array

update_from(other)

copy properties from other to self

validCap = ('butt', 'round', 'projecting')

validJoin = ('miter', 'round', 'bevel')

zorder = 2

class matplotlib.lines.VertexSelector(line)

Bases: object

Manage the callbacks to maintain a list of selected vertices for matplotlib.lines.Line2D. Derived classes should override process_selected() to do something with the picks.

Here is an example which highlights the selected verts with red circles:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.lines as lines

class HighlightSelected(lines.VertexSelector):
    def __init__(self, line, fmt='ro', **kwargs):
        lines.VertexSelector.__init__(self, line)
        self.markers, = self.axes.plot([], [], fmt, **kwargs)

    def process_selected(self, ind, xs, ys):
        self.markers.set_data(xs, ys)
        self.canvas.draw()

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
x, y = np.random.rand(2, 30)
line, = ax.plot(x, y, 'bs-', picker=5)

selector = HighlightSelected(line)
plt.show()

Initialize the class with a matplotlib.lines.Line2D instance. The line should already be added to some matplotlib.axes.Axes instance and should have the picker property set.

onpick(event)

When the line is picked, update the set of selected indicies.

process_selected(ind, xs, ys)

Default “do nothing” implementation of the process_selected() method.

ind are the indices of the selected vertices. xs and ys are the coordinates of the selected vertices.

matplotlib.lines.segment_hits(cx, cy, x, y, radius)

Determine if any line segments are within radius of a point. Returns the list of line segments that are within that radius.