Matplotlib not displaying figures

Question

This must be a really basic question: I am trying to use Matplotlib. Here's the basic example from the documentation.

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
x = np.arange(0,5,0.1)
y = np.sin(x)
plt.plot(x,y)

I have tried this in ipython, bpython and the default interpreter (Ubuntu 10.10, 64 bit) and all I get are messages like:

[<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x3f14a90>]

What am I doing wrong?

AlexJF · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-28 17:31:52Z

15

You're missing plt.show() to order matplotlib to show a window with the graph.

answered Jan 28, 2011 at 17:31

AlexJF

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3 Comments

Philipp Over a year ago

or plt.savefig to save the result in an image file

Ivo Flipse Over a year ago

OMG, for some annoying reason when running Spyder I never needed this, but I didn't understand why Eclipse didn't show my plots...

tillsten Over a year ago

Ivo: Because spyder starts mpl in ion() mode.

matt · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-28 18:07:32Z

6

In its default configuration, matplotlib needs to be told to render. That's what plt.show() does.

Matplotlib also has an interactive mode that can be useful when you're working interactively and want your plotting commands to happen immediately. The easiest way to use this is by opening an ipython session with the -pylab option. http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/users/shell.html

answered Jan 28, 2011 at 18:07

matt

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