How do you plot labelled data by using a dictionary in Matplotlib? (Python)

Question

According to Matplotlib's documentation, you can make a plot by using a dictionary to store the values for the x and y axes:

"There's a convenient way for plotting objects with labelled data (i.e. data that can be accessed by index obj['y']). Instead of giving the data in x and y, you can provide the object in the data parameter and just give the labels for x and y:

plot('xlabel', 'ylabel', data=obj)

All indexable objects are supported. This could e.g. be a dict, a pandas.DataFrame or a structured numpy array."

The language on this page is a bit technical, so I am not completely sure how to present the dictionary so I can get a working plot. I attempted to use this as an example, but it was unsuccessful:

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt

dic = {"x": [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], "y": [2, 4, 6, 8, 10] } 

plt.plot('xlabel', 'ylabel', data=dic)

May someone explain to me the way in which the structure of the dictionary should be presented to allow for labelled data plots please? Thank you.

Edit: For clarity, the values for the key "x" should be the x-values, and the values for the key "y" should be the y-values of the plot for my example.

2nd edit: This problem has been solved. I understand now that my problem was not matching the name of the first two argument inputs for plt.plot() to the key names in my dictionary.

what do you mean by labelled data plots? As for why the code didn't work, try plt.plot('x', 'y', data=dic) — warped
– warped, Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 22:20
@warped Ohhh, thank you. I didn't know that the first two argument inputs for plt.plot should match the key values of the dictionary. Thanks very much. — Coconut
– Coconut, Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 22:22
@Alpharoahi I looked at this post before making mine but it didn't help me. It's fine now as warped has pointed to my mistake. — Coconut
– Coconut, Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 22:23
Just to create the connection to the docs: you need indexable objects, and you need to pass the respective indices to the function, along with the object. — warped
– warped, Commented Nov 21, 2020 at 22:26

Coconut · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-21 22:27:31Z

1

This problem has been solved. I understand now that my problem was not matching the name of the first two argument inputs for plt.plot() to the key names in my dictionary. E.g.

plt.plot('xlabel', 'ylabel', data=dic)

Should have been

plt.plot('x', 'y', data=dic)

Thanks to the user 'warped' who commented below my question, pointing out the mistake.

answered Nov 21, 2020 at 22:27

Coconut

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