Format x-axis on chart created with pandas plot method

Question

pandas.DataFrame.plot is a convenient method for plotting data from dataframes. However, I don't understand how to format the axes using this method. For example,

import pandas as pd
import datetime

df = pd.DataFrame(index =  [datetime.datetime(2016, 7, 2, 0, 0),
                    datetime.datetime(2016, 8, 6, 0, 0),
                    datetime.datetime(2016, 9, 13, 0, 0),
                    datetime.datetime(2016, 10, 26, 0, 0),
                    datetime.datetime(2016, 11, 2, 0, 0)],
                    data = {'total' : [5, 3, 1, 0, 2]})

df

Output

          total
2016-07-02  5
2016-08-06  3
2016-09-13  1
2016-10-26  0
2016-11-02  2

Now plotting with the pandas plot method:

df.plot(kind='bar')

I would prefer that the x-axis just have the labels as the three-letter format of month - Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov.

Is this possible with the pandas plot method or should I build a chart with matplotlib instead?

edge-case · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-14 10:04:46Z

15

I found a simpler way to change the x labels to month only.

import pandas as pd
import datetime

df = pd.DataFrame(index =  [datetime.datetime(2016, 7, 2, 0, 0),
                    datetime.datetime(2016, 8, 6, 0, 0),
                    datetime.datetime(2016, 9, 13, 0, 0),
                    datetime.datetime(2016, 10, 26, 0, 0),
                    datetime.datetime(2016, 11, 2, 0, 0)],
                    data = {'total' : [5, 3, 1, 0, 2]})

ax = df.plot(kind='bar')
x_labels = df.index.strftime('%b')
ax.set_xticklabels(x_labels)

plt.show()

answered Jun 14, 2017 at 10:04

edge-case

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Comments

ImportanceOfBeingErnest · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-12 10:11:33Z

If you want to show the graph as a categorical bar plot, i.e. equidistant bars independent of the actual date, you can just reformat the xticklabels,

f = lambda x: datetime.datetime.strptime(x, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S').strftime('%b')
ax.set_xticklabels([ f(x.get_text()) for x in ax.get_xticklabels()])

where %b is the month's abbreviated name and ax is the axes of your plot.

Complete example:

import pandas as pd
import datetime
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

df = pd.DataFrame(index =  [datetime.datetime(2016, 7, 2, 0, 0),
                    datetime.datetime(2016, 8, 6, 0, 0),
                    datetime.datetime(2016, 9, 13, 0, 0),
                    datetime.datetime(2016, 10, 26, 0, 0),
                    datetime.datetime(2016, 11, 2, 0, 0)],
                    data = {'total' : [5, 3, 1, 0, 2]})

ax = df.plot(kind='bar')

f = lambda x: datetime.datetime.strptime(x, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S').strftime('%b')
ax.set_xticklabels([ f(x.get_text()) for x in ax.get_xticklabels()])

plt.show()

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