matplotlib.pyplot.plot_date#

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

[Deprecated] Plot coercing the axis to treat floats as dates.

Deprecated since version 3.9:This method exists for historic reasons and will be removed in version 3.11.

• datetime-like data should directly be plotted usingplot.

• If you need to plot plain numeric data asMatplotlib date format orneed to set a timezone, callax.xaxis.axis_date /ax.yaxis.axis_date beforeplot. SeeAxis.axis_date.

Similar toplot, this plotsy vs.x as lines or markers.However, the axis labels are formatted as dates depending onxdateandydate. Note thatplot will work withdatetime andnumpy.datetime64 objects without resorting to this method.

Parameters:

x, yarray-like

The coordinates of the data points. Ifxdate orydate isTrue, the respective valuesx ory are interpreted asMatplotlib dates.

fmtstr, optional

The plot format string. For details, see the correspondingparameter inplot.

tztimezone string ordatetime.tzinfo, default:rcParams["timezone"] (default:'UTC')

The time zone to use in labeling dates.

xdatebool, default: True

IfTrue, thex-axis will be interpreted as Matplotlib dates.

ydatebool, default: False

IfTrue, they-axis will be interpreted as Matplotlib dates.

Returns:

list ofLine2D

Objects representing the plotted data.

Other Parameters:

dataindexable object, optional

If given, the following parameters also accept a strings, which isinterpreted asdata[s] ifs is a key indata:

x,y

**kwargs

Keyword arguments control theLine2D 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 and two offsets from the bottom left corner of the image
alpha	float or None
animated	bool
antialiased oraa	bool
clip_box	BboxBase or None
clip_on	bool
clip_path	Patch or (Path, Transform) or None
color orc	color
dash_capstyle	CapStyle or {'butt', 'projecting', 'round'}
dash_joinstyle	JoinStyle or {'miter', 'round', 'bevel'}
dashes	sequence of floats (on/off ink in points) or (None, None)
data	(2, N) array or two 1D arrays
drawstyle ords	{'default', 'steps', 'steps-pre', 'steps-mid', 'steps-post'}, default: 'default'
figure	Figure orSubFigure
fillstyle	{'full', 'left', 'right', 'bottom', 'top', 'none'}
gapcolor	color or None
gid	str
in_layout	bool
label	object
linestyle orls	{'-', '--', '-.', ':', '', (offset, on-off-seq), ...}
linewidth orlw	float
marker	marker style string,Path orMarkerStyle
markeredgecolor ormec	color
markeredgewidth ormew	float
markerfacecolor ormfc	color
markerfacecoloralt ormfcalt	color
markersize orms	float
markevery	None or int or (int, int) or slice or list[int] or float or (float, float) or list[bool]
mouseover	bool
path_effects	list ofAbstractPathEffect
picker	float or callable[[Artist, Event], tuple[bool, dict]]
pickradius	float
rasterized	bool
sketch_params	(scale: float, length: float, randomness: float)
snap	bool or None
solid_capstyle	CapStyle or {'butt', 'projecting', 'round'}
solid_joinstyle	JoinStyle or {'miter', 'round', 'bevel'}
transform	unknown
url	str
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

Note

This is thepyplot wrapper foraxes.Axes.plot_date.

If you are using custom date tickers and formatters, it may benecessary to set the formatters/locators after the call toplot_date.plot_date will set the default tick locator toAutoDateLocator (if the tick locator is not already set to aDateLocator instance) and the default tick formatter toAutoDateFormatter (if the tick formatter is not already set to aDateFormatter instance).

Deprecated since version 3.9:Use plot instead.