Python Line Plot Using Matplotlib

In this article, you will learn to draw simple to complex line plotting using the Python Matplotlib Library.

Line plots generate a graph by drawing line segments between two points. It shows the frequency of data along a number line. It is a quick, simple way to organize data and best used when comparing fewer than 25 different numbers.

The Matplotlib is a Python plotting module. It can create many types of plots in which a line plot is basically in use. It provides plot(x,y) method to create a line plot.

Python Basic Line Plot

Let's draw a simple line plot. For this, we will take two variables for x and y coordinates and assign values. We will pass these variables as arguments to the plot() method.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 
# Data to plot 
x = [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10]
y = [5, 15, 6, 12, 10, 25, 12, 14]

plt.plot(x,y)
plt.show()

Python Line Plot With Markers

The given code specifies a marker symbol in the line-specification input argument. For this, we have set the marker property with circular markers. We have also specified the color of the plotting.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 
# Data to plot 
x = [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10]
y = [5, 15, 6, 12, 10, 25, 12, 14]

plt.plot(x,y, marker = 'o', color='#7d0552')
plt.show()

Python Line Plot With Line Styles

In the above example, we have set the markers and color properties. Similarly, we can also set the property of line style, like -

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 
# Data to plot 
x = [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10]
y = [5, 15, 6, 12, 10, 25, 12, 14]

plt.plot(x,y, marker = 'o', color='#f70d1a', linestyle = ':')
plt.show()

Python Multiple Lines Plot

A multiple line graph shows the relationship between independent and dependent values of multiple sets of data. It is best for comparing different sets of data. Here, we have taken three different data sets and plotted them.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 
# Data to plot 
x = [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10]
y1 = [5, 15, 6, 12, 10, 25, 12, 14]
y2 = [6, 12, 8, 7, 14, 18, 20, 11]
y3 = [15, 10, 11, 8, 5, 12, 20, 23]

plt.plot(x,y1, marker = 'o', color='#f70d1a')
plt.plot(x,y2, marker = 'x', color='#08088A')
plt.plot(x,y3, marker = '+', color='#FFBF00')
plt.show()

Related Articles