Installation

See Installing doc for other options.

$ pip install matplotlib

Imports

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

Line graph

From Usage tutorial and plot method docs.

Simple plot

plot(x, y)        # plot x and y using default line style and color
plot(x, y, 'bo')  # plot x and y using blue circle markers
plot(y)           # plot y using x as index array 0..N-1
plot(y, 'r+')     # ditto, but with red plusses

e.g.

x = [1, 2, 3, 4]
y = [1, 4, 2, 3]

fig, ax = plt.subplots()  
ax.plot(x, y) 

# Or in one line:
plt.plot(x, y)

Multiple lines on a plot

x = np.linspace(0, 2, 100)

plt.plot(x, x,    label='linear')  
plt.plot(x, x**2, label='quadratic') 
plt.plot(x, x**3, label='cubic')

plt.xlabel('x label')
plt.ylabel('y label')
plt.title("Simple Plot")
plt.legend()

How to run Matplotlib

See Backends in the docs.

  • Run Jupyter notebooks and draw inline plots for quick data analysis.
  • Embed plots into GUIs like PyQt or PyGObject to build rich applications.
  • Use batch scripts to generate postscript images from numerical simulations.
  • Run web application servers to dynamically serve up graphs.