Issue with displaying labels in matplotlib

Question

I am a new user in python and matplotlib so be gentle.

I have a plot with changed x and y labels so they correspond to chemical compounds.

However as make a 10x10 plot for instance (I think the limit is 8x8) not all of my labels are showing.

Of course I want that changed so that all the labels are present in a 8 x 12 plot for instance.

Below are the code that I am using so far just with random numbers.

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

HOST = ['RuO2', 'IrO2', 'TiO2', 'MnO2','SnO2','MoO2','NbO2','Dummy','Dummy','Dummy']

GUEST = ['Ru','Ir','Ti','Mn','Sn','Fe','Ni','Zn','Mg','D']

data = np.random.random((10,10))

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
cax = ax.matshow(data)
fig.colorbar(cax)

ax.set_xticklabels(['']+HOST,rotation=90)
ax.set_yticklabels(['']+GUEST)

plt.show()

This will in time of course be modified to my data etc.

+1 for a Short, Self Contained, Correct (Compilable), Example. — Chris
– Chris, Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 10:11

Chris · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-28 10:06:11Z

4

Have a look at the matplotlib.pyplot.xticks function, which sets or gets the x-axis tick locations and labels. If I call this

locs, labels = plt.xticks()

in your example code I get the the xticks are locatedat

>>> locs
[ -2.,   0.,   2.,   4.,   6.,   8.,  10.]

Noting that the two points -2 and 10 have empty labels, this corresponds to 5 x-axis tick locations, so you won't get all of your labels plotted since the number of x-axis tick labels exceeds the number of x-axis tick locations. Try replacing

ax.set_xticklabels(['']+HOST, rotation=90)

with

ax.xticks(range(len(HOST), HOST, rotation=90)

Here we are setting both the xtick locations and labels. Of course a similar replacement is required for the y-axis tick marks.

answered Jun 28, 2012 at 10:06

Chris

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2 Comments

user1488097 Over a year ago

Did not work as intended. First of all the rotation is not possible but that is unimportant. I now get a plot with labels for every second row and it is numbers not the strings that I have specified.

Chris Over a year ago

When I make the modification I suggest I get 10 labels on the x-axis with labels RuO2, IrO2, ... Dummy etc. Is not what you want? Also, what do you mean "rotation is not possible"? It works for me. Can you be more specific in your question. Perhaps posting screenshots of what you are trying to achieve.

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