Matplotlib subplot y-axis scale overlaps with plot above

Question

I am trying to plot 3 subplots without any white space between them. The default y axis ticklabels use a scale displayed to the top right of the y axis (1e-8 in the example below), which would be fine except for the lower two plots this overlaps with the plot above. Anyone know how to fix this? A small example is below.

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.gridspec as gridspec
from matplotlib.ticker import MaxNLocator

x = np.arange(0,200)
y = np.random.rand(200) * 10e-8


fig = plt.figure(figsize=(10,15))
gs1 = gridspec.GridSpec(3, 3)
gs1.update(left=0.1, right=0.9, bottom=0.5, hspace=0.0)
ax0a = plt.subplot(gs1[0, :])
ax0b = plt.subplot(gs1[1, :])
ax0c = plt.subplot(gs1[2, :])


ax0a.set_xticklabels([])
ax0b.set_xticklabels([]) 

ax0a.plot(x,y)
nbins = len(ax0a.get_xticklabels())
ax0a.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(nbins=nbins, prune='upper'))
ax0b.plot(x,y)
ax0b.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(nbins=nbins, prune='upper'))
ax0c.plot(x,y)
ax0c.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(nbins=nbins, prune='upper'))

plot

so one solution is to use mtick,

import matplotlib.ticker as mtick

ax0a.yaxis.set_major_formatter(mtick.FormatStrFormatter('%.1e'))
ax0b.yaxis.set_major_formatter(mtick.FormatStrFormatter('%.1e'))
ax0c.yaxis.set_major_formatter(mtick.FormatStrFormatter('%.1e'))

but I would prefer to be able to shift the scale to the left so it is outside the axis if possible.

Could you divide your data by 10e8, and just rename the xtick labels to r'$10^x$'? — GWW
– GWW, Commented Jun 11, 2015 at 4:12

Scott · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-11 06:18:49Z

I have two options you might want to look at.

First, set the axis location and size yourself as such:

# your imports and data above
fig = plt.figure()
ax0a = fig.add_axes([0.1, 0.1, 0.8, 0.25])
ax0b = fig.add_axes([0.1, 0.39, 0.8, 0.25], sharex=ax0a)
ax0c = fig.add_axes([0.1, 0.68, 0.8, 0.25], sharex=ax0a)
ax0a.set_xticklabels([])
ax0b.set_xticklabels([]) 
ax0a.plot(x,y)
nbins = len(ax0a.get_xticklabels())
ax0a.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(nbins=nbins, prune='upper'))
ax0b.plot(x,y)
ax0b.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(nbins=nbins, prune='upper'))
ax0c.plot(x,y)
ax0c.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(nbins=nbins, prune='upper'))
plt.show()

enter image description here

The second option is to manually adjust the location and maybe font size of the offset text:

# your original code minus data and imports
fig = plt.figure()
gs1 = gridspec.GridSpec(3, 3)
gs1.update(left=0.1, right=0.9, bottom=0.5, hspace=0.0)
ax0a = plt.subplot(gs1[0, :])
ax0b = plt.subplot(gs1[1, :])
ax0c = plt.subplot(gs1[2, :])
ax0a.set_xticklabels([])
ax0b.set_xticklabels([]) 
ax0a.plot(x,y)
nbins = len(ax0a.get_xticklabels())
ax0a.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(nbins=nbins, prune='upper'))
ax0b.plot(x,y)
ax0b.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(nbins=nbins, prune='upper'))
ax0c.plot(x,y)
ax0c.yaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(nbins=nbins, prune='upper'))

# play around with location and font of offset text here
ax0a.get_yaxis().get_offset_text().set_x(-0.075)
ax0a.get_yaxis().get_offset_text().set_size(10)
ax0b.get_yaxis().get_offset_text().set_x(-0.075)
ax0b.get_yaxis().get_offset_text().set_size(10)
ax0c.get_yaxis().get_offset_text().set_x(-0.075)
ax0c.get_yaxis().get_offset_text().set_size(10)
plt.show()

enter image description here

jrsm · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-10 18:21:28Z

0

Ok, this is probably an ugly solution but you could just simply upscale your data in the lower plots with the range of the power i.e. ax0b.plot(x, y*1e8). This works for your example at least.

answered Jun 10, 2015 at 18:21

jrsm

1,7152 gold badges23 silver badges41 bronze badges

1 Comment

Dave Over a year ago

No I cant do it that way, I need to to keep it in the units it's already in, but thanks for the suggestion.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Matplotlib subplot y-axis scale overlaps with plot above

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

1 Comment

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related