I have a pandas DataFrame that has 2 columns one of the columns is a list of dates in this format: '4-Dec-14' the other column is a list of numbers. I want to plot a graph with the dates on the x-axis and numbers that correspond with that date on the y-axis. Either a scatter plot or line graph. I was trying to follow the tutorial on Matplotlib http://matplotlib.org/users/recipes.html 'Fixing common date annoyances' but it will not accept my date format. When I try using the plot function it returns an error: ValueError: invalid literal for float(): 4-Dec-14. How would I change my date format so it will work. Or is there some other way I can plot this DataFrame. Thanks
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2 Answers
You should first convert the strings in the date column, to actual datetime values:
df['date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['date'])
Then you can plot it, either by setting the date as the index:
df = df.set_index('date')
df['y'].plot()
or by specifying x and y in plot:
df.plot(x='date', y='y')
Comments
Try converting your datecolumn into a date index. Try something like this:
df.index=pd.to_datetime(df.yourdatecolumn,format='%d-%b-%y')
Then you should be able to plot your data as:
plt.plot(df.index, df.yournumbercolumn)
