matplotlib.pyplot.plot_date

matplotlib.pyplot.plot_date(x, y, fmt='o', tz=None, xdate=True, ydate=False, hold=None, data=None, **kwargs) [source]

Plot data that contains dates.

Similar to plot, this plots y vs. x as lines or markers. However, the axis labels are formatted as dates depending on xdate and ydate.

Parameters:	x, y : array-like The coordinates of the data points. If xdate or ydate is True, the respective values x or y are interpreted as Matplotlib dates. fmt : str, optional The plot format string. For details, see the corresponding parameter in plot. tz : [ None | timezone string | tzinfo instance] The time zone to use in labeling dates. If None, defaults to rcParam timezone. xdate : bool, optional, default: True If True, the x-axis will be interpreted as Matplotlib dates. ydate : bool, optional, default: False If True, the y-axis will be interpreted as Matplotlib dates.
Returns:	lines A list of Line2D objects representing the plotted data.
Other Parameters:	**kwargs Keyword arguments control the Line2D properties: Property Description agg_filter a filter function, which takes a (m, n, 3) float array and a dpi value, and returns a (m, n, 3) array alpha float (0.0 transparent through 1.0 opaque) animated bool antialiased or aa bool clip_box a Bbox instance clip_on bool clip_path [(Path, Transform) | Patch | None] color or c any matplotlib color contains a callable function dash_capstyle ['butt' | 'round' | 'projecting'] dash_joinstyle ['miter' | 'round' | 'bevel'] dashes sequence of on/off ink in points drawstyle ['default' | 'steps' | 'steps-pre' | 'steps-mid' | 'steps-post'] figure a Figure instance fillstyle ['full' | 'left' | 'right' | 'bottom' | 'top' | 'none'] gid an id string label object linestyle or ls ['solid' | 'dashed', 'dashdot', 'dotted' | (offset, on-off-dash-seq) | '-' | '--' | '-.' | ':' | 'None' | ' ' | ''] linewidth or lw float value in points marker A valid marker style markeredgecolor or mec any matplotlib color markeredgewidth or mew float value in points markerfacecolor or mfc any matplotlib color markerfacecoloralt or mfcalt any matplotlib color markersize or ms float markevery [None | int | length-2 tuple of int | slice | list/array of int | float | length-2 tuple of float] path_effects AbstractPathEffect picker float distance in points or callable pick function fn(artist, event) pickradius float distance in points rasterized bool or None sketch_params (scale: float, length: float, randomness: float) snap bool or None solid_capstyle ['butt' | 'round' | 'projecting'] solid_joinstyle ['miter' | 'round' | 'bevel'] transform a matplotlib.transforms.Transform instance url a url string visible bool xdata 1D array ydata 1D array zorder float

See also

matplotlib.dates

Helper functions on dates.

matplotlib.dates.date2num

Convert dates to num.

matplotlib.dates.num2date

Convert num to dates.

matplotlib.dates.drange

Create an equally spaced sequence of dates.

Notes

If you are using custom date tickers and formatters, it may be necessary to set the formatters/locators after the call to plot_date. plot_date will set the default tick locator to AutoDateLocator (if the tick locator is not already set to a DateLocator instance) and the default tick formatter to AutoDateFormatter (if the tick formatter is not already set to a DateFormatter instance).

Note

In addition to the above described arguments, this function can take a data keyword argument. If such a data argument is given, the following arguments are replaced by data[<arg>]:

• All arguments with the following names: 'x', 'y'.

Examples using matplotlib.pyplot.plot_date