Cannot create bar plot with pandas

Question

I am trying to create a bar plot using pandas. I have the following code:

import pandas as pd

indexes = ['Strongly agree', 'Agree', 'Neutral', 'Disagree', 'Strongly disagree']

df = pd.DataFrame({'Q7': [10, 11, 1, 0, 0]}, index=indexes)
df.plot.bar(indexes, df['Q7'].values)

By my reckoning this should work but I get a weird KeyError: 'Strongly agree' thrown at me. I can't figure out why this won't work.

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

BENY
– BENY

2017-12-13 05:03:02 +00:00
Commented Dec 13, 2017 at 5:03 — BENY
– BENY, Commented Dec 13, 2017 at 5:03
Isn't plot.bar just an alias for the same?

K G
– K G

2017-12-13 05:06:26 +00:00
Commented Dec 13, 2017 at 5:06 — K G
– K G, Commented Dec 13, 2017 at 5:06

andrew_reece · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-13 05:13:41Z

2

By invoking plot as a Pandas method, you're referring to the data structures of df to make your plot.

The way you have it set up, with index=indexes, your bar plot's x values are stored in df.index. That's why Wen's suggestion in the comments to just use df.plot.bar() will work, as Pandas automatically looks to use df.index as the x-axis in this case.

Alternately, you can specify column names for x and y. In this case, you can move indexes into a column with reset_index() and then call the new index column explicitly:

df.reset_index().plot.bar(x="index", y="Q7")

Either approach will yield the correct plot:

answered Dec 13, 2017 at 5:13

andrew_reece

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2 Comments

K G Over a year ago

Ok thanks. And if I want to colour each bar differently?

andrew_reece Over a year ago

Pandas isn't designed to support multiple colors for a single column. (And in general it's often unnecessary, and even confusing, to encode color as a redundant dimension for a categorical axis.) Still, there's a workaround here, if you really need it: stackoverflow.com/a/44495136/2799941.

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