How to access axis label object in matplotlib?

Question

I am trying to add some text to a figure that I would like to align with thexlabelof the axes. I want to find the coordinates of thexlabel, but the functionax.get_xlabel()only returns the string displayed in the label.

How can I get access to thexlabelobject (which I assume is just an instance of text) to find its coordinates, or is there some other means of obtaining them?

@wwii well if you'd like to point me to where I could find it that would be great. The only functions I have found in the docs are set_xlabel() and get_xlabel() which only operate on the string value — user3419537
– user3419537, Commented Jul 18, 2014 at 14:39
Start at the beginning of the Artist Tutorial, there is a hint to your solution right at the beginning. This is worth knowing if you want to have finer control over your Figures and/or you are going to be using matplolib a lot. — wwii
– wwii, Commented Jul 18, 2014 at 14:59
Ohhh, well now I feel stupid. I forgot that the "set" functions return a reference to the object. I also found I can get at it using ax.xaxis.get_label(). Thanks! — user3419537
– user3419537, Commented Jul 18, 2014 at 15:07
Quick search helps sometimes too, the (my) first result of a google search for "matplolib get xlabel position" turned up stackoverflow.com/questions/9290938/… — wwii
– wwii, Commented Jul 18, 2014 at 15:10

user3419537 · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-18 23:21:42Z

38

The solution is not to use ax.get_xlabel(), but:

xlbl = ax.xaxis.get_label()

Or as wwii pointed out, just save a reference to the label when creating it. Embarrasingly simple.

xlbl = ax.set_xlabel(...)

and to obtain the coordinates:

xlbl.get_position()

edited Jul 18, 2014 at 23:21

answered Jul 18, 2014 at 15:14

user3419537

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3 Comments

user3419537 Over a year ago

Why is this being downvoted? It answers the question.

Schorsch Over a year ago

you might get downvoted (not me), because your answer does not show how exactly you now get the coordinates (which is what you asked). maybe you could show how you extract the coordinates from xlbl (to get an upvote, maybe show how to change them subsequently)

user3419537 Over a year ago

Thanks @Schorsch, I guess the way I worded my question makes it sound that way. The emphasis was intended to be on finding the object since I already knew how to obtain its coordinates. I'll add it for completeness, but I still don't think that the downvote was justified.

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