Add functionality to plot bar and barh with string labels (Implement #2516) #4266

umairidris · 2015-03-23T08:25:01Z

This patch is an attempt to add the functionality to pass in strings to label the axis of a bar graph (issue #2516). The patch shouldn't break any existing API. I also center the labels based on the width/height passed for a cleaner more professional look (please view the tests). I am happy to hear any feedback and/or concerns!

Cheers!
Umair

jenshnielsen · 2015-03-23T10:26:02Z

The Travis docs build failure is not an issue with this Pull request. Fixed by #4267

tacaswell · 2015-03-23T11:30:42Z

lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py

@@ -1960,6 +1965,11 @@ def make_iterable(x):
                left *= nbars
            if len(height) == 1:
                height *= nbars
+            if nbars and cbook.is_sequence_of_strings(bottom):
+                ticks_loc = [i + height[i]/2 for i in range(nbars)]


I would do this as [i + h / 2 for i, h in enumerate(height)], same for the logic in bar

Thanks, this looks a lot better now! Fixed via 1627e8e

tacaswell · 2015-03-23T11:33:24Z

👍 for the idea, I am a bit wary of overloading bottom and left in this way as now you can either label them or have non-zero baseline, but not both.

umairidris · 2015-03-23T17:16:00Z

👍 for the idea, I am a bit wary of overloading bottom and left in this way as now you can either label them or have non-zero baseline, but not both.

You're right. To address this I added a check and raised ValueError if bottom (bar) or left (barh) are a list of strings. Perhaps we should more explicitly state this in the docstring as well. If you have any suggestions on how to improve this let me know!

tacaswell · 2015-03-23T17:22:33Z

Sorry, I transposed the issue. Now you can't specify both the labels and non-unit bar spacing which is much worse.

umairidris · 2015-03-23T17:45:56Z

Ah, I see what you mean. Perhaps a better way to do this is to not touch left and bottom and instead add an extra kwarg 'labels' or something similar?

The use case I am thinking about is: bar([1,2,3], [1,1,1], labels=['a', 'b', 'c'])

tacaswell · 2015-03-23T17:54:58Z

Yes, I think that is a better route. I would also not move the ticks relative to the bar unless explicitly asked to. Both bar* functions have an align kwarg which should still be respected.

tacaswell · 2015-03-25T03:19:09Z

@umairidris You should also have a look at how boxplot handles this sort of thing. iirc bxp has a bunch of tick-management logic at the bottom of it.

umairidris · 2015-03-25T07:53:00Z

Thanks for the feedback and advice @tacaswell! I have addressed it via commit c04bf79.

A few points I should mention:

I wanted to match the 'label' bxpstats key used by bxp. However, label is a kwarg that is already being used by bar. I am not sure what the best name for my added kwarg should be... tick_label (currently used)? bar_label? text_label?
I added the ability to pass in the labels as a single string to remain consistent with the rest of the API. You can now do bar(0, 1, tick_label='a') (please see added test).
I moved the code to set the labels to the bottom of the bar function. This mimics bxp and also fixes interfering with autoscale (self.autoscale_view() needs to be called before the tick labels are set).
As requested, bar* align kwarg is now respected (see updated tests).

I hope I addressed your concerns. Please let me know if you have any further suggestions!

tacaswell · 2015-03-30T03:32:07Z

This looks good, just one code comment.

Can you add an entry in https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/tree/master/doc/users/whats_new so that this gets advertised?

tacaswell · 2015-03-30T03:33:16Z

lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py

@@ -1926,6 +1930,8 @@ def make_iterable(x):
        width = make_iterable(width)
        _bottom = bottom
        bottom = make_iterable(bottom)
+        _tick_label = tick_label


I would do this as

label_ticks_flag = not tick_label is None

Which I think is a bit clearer.

tick_label is not None, please
On Mar 29, 2015 11:33 PM, "Thomas A Caswell" notifications@github.com
wrote:

In lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
#4266 (comment):

@@ -1926,6 +1930,8 @@ def make_iterable(x):
width = make_iterable(width)
_bottom = bottom
bottom = make_iterable(bottom)

_tick_label = tick_label

I would do this as

label_ticks_flag = not tick_label is None

Which I think is a bit clearer.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/4266/files#r27365250.

erm, yes, what @WeatherGod said

tacaswell · 2015-04-12T00:01:13Z

@umairidris This needs to be rebased, not sure why.

umairidris · 2015-04-12T02:19:04Z

@tacaswell Done! My branch had the old docstrings (not numpy format) which was causing merge conflicts. All fixed now. :)

Umair I.

tacaswell · 2015-04-12T02:39:36Z

Great. I will merge this as soon as travis passes again.

… new entry.

ENH : pass list of strings to label bar/barh plots Add functionality to plot bar and barh to label bars with list strings (closes #2516)

tacaswell added the status: needs review label Mar 23, 2015

tacaswell reviewed Mar 23, 2015
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tacaswell added this to the next point release milestone Mar 23, 2015

tacaswell added status: needs revision and removed status: needs review labels Mar 24, 2015

tacaswell added status: needs review and removed status: needs revision labels Mar 30, 2015

tacaswell reviewed Mar 30, 2015
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Add functionality to plot bar and barh with string labels. Add what's…

c2a6da5

… new entry.

tacaswell added a commit that referenced this pull request Apr 12, 2015

Merge pull request #4266 from umairidris/bar_labels

a6af675

ENH : pass list of strings to label bar/barh plots Add functionality to plot bar and barh to label bars with list strings (closes #2516)

tacaswell merged commit a6af675 into matplotlib:master Apr 12, 2015

tacaswell removed the status: needs review label Apr 12, 2015

umairidris deleted the bar_labels branch April 12, 2015 03:35

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Add functionality to plot bar and barh with string labels (Implement #2516) #4266

Add functionality to plot bar and barh with string labels (Implement #2516) #4266

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Add functionality to plot bar and barh with string labels (Implement #2516) #4266

Add functionality to plot bar and barh with string labels (Implement #2516) #4266

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