Interactive plotting with Python via command line

Question

I am trying to use Python and the numpy and matplotlib libraries to do some data analysis and plotting and view my plots, adjust my code accordingly etc. So I need to be able to examine the plot. However, running the script from the command line causes the figure to pop up momentarily then instantly disappear. Another answer suggested to add a raw_input("text here") line at the end of the program to force python to wait for input and hold the plots open. This does hold the plot windows open for me but the actual plots disappear and I just get an empty gray figure window while python waits for input.

I'm running MAC OS X 10.8.3 and using the terminal v2.3 and my python installation is python 2.7.3

import matplotlib.pylab as plt
import numpy as np

[ .. bunch of calculations .. ]

plt.ion()
plt.figure("Test Figure")
plt.plot(xspace[:],vals[:,50])

raw_input("press key to exit")

Are you aware of IPython? It's wonderful for interactive computing, including plotting, both from its shells and notebook. — jorgeca
– jorgeca, Commented Apr 13, 2013 at 19:42
Two years later and I am exclusively using iPython now. Thanks for the suggestion @jorgeca — Daniel
– Daniel, Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 16:15

Cristian Ciupitu · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-07 16:59:13Z

46

Use plt.show at the end of your code.

edited Mar 7, 2017 at 16:59

Cristian Ciupitu

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answered Apr 13, 2013 at 20:41

Chrismit

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1 Comment

Daniel Over a year ago

Added plt.show() and started using IPython as suggested by jorgeca and everything works fine now, thanks for the help!

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