How to reuse a predefined line style in matplotlib.pyplot.plot?

Question

First, I defined a line through matplotlib.lines.Line2D:

import matplotlib.lines as mlines
newLine = mlines.Line2D([], [], color="blue", linestyle='-',linewidth=2)

(For simplicity) In the same script file, I would like to call these line settings whenever possible through: matplotlib.pyplot.plot without repeating the kwargs, such as:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

dataXaxis=np.arange(0,10)
dataYaxis=np.arange(5,15)

plt.plot(dataXaxis, dataYaxis, <CALL newLine PROPERTIES>)

instead of:

plt.plot(dataXaxis, dataYaxis, color="blue", linestyle='-',linewidth=2)

Context:

I might be confused with the above functionalities. Yet I want to use predefined line style settings associated to a predefined concept. For instance, I want to use a particular line style whenever I plot 'input vs. time' relation, and another particular style to plot 'output vs. time' relation.

Ignacio Vergara Kausel · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-22 10:43:04Z

1

You could just define a dictionary with the keyword arguments that you want to use each time, e.g.,

newlinestyle = {'color': 'blue', 'linestyle': '-', 'linewidth': 2}

plt.plot(dataXaxis, dataYaxis, **newlinestyle)

edited Nov 22, 2017 at 10:43

Ignacio Vergara Kausel

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answered Nov 22, 2017 at 10:37

Matt Pitkin

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Herpes Free Engineer · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-22 11:03:16Z

0

Based on Matt Pitkin's answer, I tried to generalize the approach as a MWE:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

newlinestyles = {'dict1': {'color': 'blue', 'linestyle': '-', 'linewidth': 2},
                 'dict2': {'color': 'red' , 'linestyle': '-', 'linewidth': 2} }

dataXaxis=np.arange(0,10)
dataYaxis=np.arange(5,15)

plt.plot(dataXaxis, dataYaxis, **newlinestyles['dict1'])
plt.show()

plt.plot(dataXaxis, dataYaxis, **newlinestyles['dict2'])

plt.close()

answered Nov 22, 2017 at 11:03

Herpes Free Engineer

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