Data Visualization - Matplotlib

anshulmalik004@[Link]
Data Visualization

We, as humans, process visual information faster than text or numbers, so we use Data
visualization i.e. the graphical representation of data to:

• Understand patterns and trends

• Identify outliers and anomalies
• Communicate insights clearly
• Support data-driven decision making

The common types of plots used in data visualization are line plots, bar charts, histograms,
scatter plots, box plots etc.

Matplotlib

Matplotlib is a Python library used for:

• Creating static, animated, and interactive plots

• Low-level control over plot appearance
• Serving as the foundation for other libraries (Seaborn, Pandas plotting)

Installation

pip install matplotlib

Usage

import [Link] as plt

1
Basic Plot Structure

anshulmalik004@[Link]
[Link](x, y)
[Link]("X-axis label")
[Link]("Y-axis label")
[Link]("Title")
[Link]()

Important Plots in Matplotlib

Line Plots
A line plot is a type of chart used to display data points connected by straight lines,
typically to show trends or changes over a continuous variable, such as time or distance.

Example:

import [Link] as plt

x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
y = [2, 4, 6, 8, 10]

[Link](x, y)
[Link]("X values")
[Link]("Y values")
[Link]("Simple Line Plot")
[Link](True) # Adds a grid
[Link]()

Key features of a line plot:

• X-axis: usually continuous (time, sequence, measurements)

• Y-axis: values being measured
• Line style: solid (), dashed ( - ), dotted ( : ) etc.
• Markers: shows individual data points ( o , s , ^ , '*' , '.' )

2
Styling a Line Plot

anshulmalik004@[Link]
[Link](x, y,
color="blue",
linestyle="--",
linewidth=2,
marker="o",
markersize=6)

[Link]()

Multiple Lines on the Same Plot

y2 = [1, 3, 5, 7, 9]

[Link](x, y, label="Line 1")

[Link](x, y2, label="Line 2")

[Link]("X")
[Link]("Y")
[Link]()
[Link]()

Saving Plots

[Link]("line_plot.png")

When to use?
Use a line plot when:

• Data points are ordered

• You want to show progression or trends
• You’re comparing changes rather than individual categories

3
 anshulmalik004@[Link]
In Matplotlib, fmt strings are a compact way to specify the line style,
marker, and color in a single string, so fmt is a combination of
[color][marker][linestyle] .

Example:

[Link](x, y, 'g--') # green dashed line

[Link](x, y, 'bo') # blue circles, no line

Refer to documentation for all options -

[Link]

Bar Charts
A bar chart is a graph that displays categorical data using rectangular bars. Each bar’s
height (or length, in horizontal bars) represents a value.

Example:

import [Link] as plt

x = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D']

y = [10, 15, 7, 12]

[Link](x, y)
[Link]("Categories")
[Link]("Values")
[Link]("Simple Bar Chart")
[Link]()

This creates a vertical bar chart (most common).

4
Styling a Bar Chart

anshulmalik004@[Link]
[Link](x, y,
color='skyblue',
width=0.6,
edgecolor='black',
linewidth=1.5)

[Link]()
[Link]()

Horizontal Bar Chart

[Link](x, y)
[Link]("Values")
[Link]("Categories")
[Link]("Horizontal Bar Chart")
[Link]()

Multiple Bar Charts (Grouped Bars)

import numpy as np

x = [Link](4)
y1 = [10, 15, 7, 12]
y2 = [8, 14, 9, 10]

width = 0.35

[Link](x - width/2, y1, width, label='Group 1')

[Link](x + width/2, y2, width, label='Group 2')

[Link](x, ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D'])

[Link]("Categories")
[Link]("Values")
[Link]()
[Link]()

When to use?
Use a bar chart when:
• You are comparing different categories
• The data is discrete, not continuous
• You want clear visual comparison

5
 We can use [Link]() to add text annotations to the bars in the bar chart.

anshulmalik004@[Link]
Syntax:

values = [10, 20, 30]

[Link](['A', 'B', 'C'], values)

for i, v in enumerate(values):
[Link](i, v, str(v))

Scatter Plots
A scatter plot shows the relationship between two variables by plotting points on a 2D
plane.

Example:

x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
y = [2, 4, 1, 3, 5]

[Link](x, y)
[Link]("X values")
[Link]("Y values")
[Link]("Simple Scatter Plot")
[Link](True)
[Link]()

Styling a Bar Chart

[Link](x, y,
s=100, # marker size
c='red', # color
marker='o',
alpha= 0.7) # transparency
[Link]()

6
Using a Colormap (Color by Value)

anshulmalik004@[Link]
import numpy as np

colors = [Link]([10, 20, 30, 40, 50])

[Link](x, y, c=colors, cmap='viridis')

[Link](label='Color Scale')
[Link]()

Multiple Scatter Plots

y2 = [5, 3, 4, 2, 1]

[Link](x, y, label='Set 1')

[Link](x, y2, label='Set 2')

[Link]("X")
[Link]("Y")
[Link]()
[Link]()

When to use?
Use a scatter plot when:
• You want to analyze the relationship between two variables
• Data is numerical and continuous
• You don’t want to imply a trend by connecting points

We can also add annotations. Annotations are used to add explanatory

text or markers to specific points in a plot.

Example:

x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
y = [5, 7, 6, 8, 7]

[Link](x, y)

# Annotate each point

for i in range(len(x)):
[Link](x[i]+0.1, y[i]+0.1, f"({x[i]}, {y[i]})") # small offset

7
Pie Charts
A pie chart is a circular chart divided into slices to show relative proportions of a whole.

anshulmalik004@[Link]
• Each slice = a category
• Size of slice = value of that category relative to the total
We prefer them only when our data has few categories.

Example:

sizes = [30, 20, 25, 25]

labels = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D']

[Link](sizes, labels=labels)
[Link]()

Adding Percentages

[Link](sizes,
labels=labels,
autopct='%1.1f%%') # shows percentage

[Link]()

Changing Colors

colors = ['skyblue', 'lightgreen', 'pink', 'orange']

[Link](sizes, labels=labels, autopct='%1.1f%%', colors=colors)

[Link]()

Starting Angle and Shadow

[Link](sizes,
labels=labels,
autopct='%1.1f%%',
startangle=90, # rotate chart
shadow=True) # adds shadow

[Link]()

8
Wedgeprops
In Matplotlib pie charts, wedgeprops is a dictionary of properties that controls the

anshulmalik004@[Link]
appearance of the pie slices (wedges). It has common properties like edgecolor,
linewidth, linestyle, alpha etc.

[Link](sizes,
labels=labels,
autopct='%1.1f%%',
wedgeprops={'edgecolor': 'black', 'linewidth': 2})

When to use?
Use a pie chart when:
• You want to display part-to-whole relationships
• You have categorical data
• Data has few categories (4–6); too many slices make it hard to read

Histograms
A histogram shows the distribution of numerical data by:
• Dividing values into bins (ranges)
• Counting how many values fall into each bin (frequency)

Example:

data = [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5]

[Link](data, bins=5, color='skyblue', edgecolor='black')

[Link]("Value")
[Link]("Frequency")
[Link]("Simple Histogram")
[Link](axis='y', linestyle='--', alpha=0. 7)

[Link]()

9
Number of bins
bins controls how the data is divided. It can be an integer or a sequence of bin edges:

anshulmalik004@[Link]
[Link](data, bins=3) # integer

[Link](data, bins=[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]) # sequence

Histogram Orientation

• Vertical (default)

[Link](data)

• Horizontal

[Link](data, orientation='horizontal')

Multiple Histograms

data2 = [2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6]

[Link](data, bins=5, alpha=0.5, label='Data 1', color='blue')

[Link](data2, bins=5, alpha=0.5, label='Data 2', color='red')
[Link]()

alpha controls transparency so overlapping histograms are visible.

When to use?
Use a histogram when:
• You want to show the distribution of continuous data.
• You have to analyze frequency, spread, skewness, or patterns.
• Working with large datasets to summarize trends.

10
 axvline (Axis Vertical Line) is used to draw a vertical line at a specific x-
value in a plot.

anshulmalik004@[Link]
Example:

[Link](x=value, color='color', linestyle='style', linewidth=width,

label='label')

Box Plots
A box plot is a statistical visualization that summarizes the distribution of a dataset using
five key numbers:

• Minimum (lowest non-outlier)

• First Quartile (Q1) – 25th percentile
• Median (Q2) – 50th percentile
• Third Quartile (Q3) – 75th percentile
• Maximum (highest non-outlier)
It can also show outliers.

Example:

data = [7, 8, 5, 6, 9, 7, 8, 10, 4, 6]

[Link](data)
[Link]("Values")
[Link]("Simple Box Plot")
[Link]()

Main Values in the Box Plot

1. Minimum (Lower Whisker)
• The smallest data point within 1.5 × IQR below Q1
• Any smaller points are considered outliers

2. First Quartile (Q1)

• The 25th percentile of the data
• 25% of data points are below Q1
• Bottom edge of the box

11
3. Median (Q2)
• The 50th percentile (middle value)

anshulmalik004@[Link]
• Line inside the box
• Splits the dataset into two halves

4. Third Quartile (Q3)

• The 75th percentile of the data
• 75% of data points are below Q3
• Top edge of the box

5. Maximum (Upper Whisker)

• The largest data point within 1.5 × IQR above Q3
• Points beyond this are outliers

6. Interquartile Range (IQR)

• Difference between Q3 and Q1: IQR = Q3 − Q1
• Represents the middle 50% of the data

7. Outliers
• Data points outside 1.5 × IQR from Q1 or Q3
• Plotted as dots or asterisks beyond the whiskers

Horizontal Box Plot

[Link](data, vert=False)
[Link]("Values")
[Link]()

Multiple Box Plots

data1 = [7, 8, 5, 6, 9, 7, 8, 10, 4, 6]

data2 = [5, 6, 7, 8, 5, 4, 6, 7, 5, 6]

[Link]([data1, data2], labels=['Dataset 1', 'Dataset 2'])

[Link]()

Each box represents a different dataset.

12
Showing Mean

anshulmalik004@[Link]
[Link](data, showmeans=True, meanline=True)

• showmeans=True adds the mean marker.

• meanline=True draws a line instead of a point.

When to use?

• Visualize spread and skewness of data

• Identify outliers
• Compare distributions across multiple groups

Stack Plots
A stack plot is a type of plot where multiple data series are stacked on top of each other.
Each “layer” shows the contribution of one category, and the top line shows the
cumulative total.

Example:

x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
y1 = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
y2 = [2, 1, 2, 1, 2]

[Link](x, y1, y2, labels=['Data1', 'Data2'], colors=['blue', 'green'])

[Link]("X")
[Link]("Y")
[Link]("Basic Stack Plot")
[Link](loc='upper left')

[Link]()

When to use?
Use a stack plot when you want to:
• Show cumulative data over time
• Compare multiple components
• Highlight trends in parts and whole

13
Subplots
In Matplotlib, subplots allow you to display multiple plots in a single figure, arranged

anshulmalik004@[Link]
in a grid. This is useful for comparing different datasets or visualizations side by side.

Example:

x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
y1 = [2, 3, 5, 7, 11]
y2 = [1, 4, 2, 5, 3]

# 1 row, 2 columns, first subplot

[Link](1, 2, 1) # (rows, columns, index)
[Link](x, y1, color='blue', marker='o')
[Link]("First Subplot")
[Link] ("X")
[Link]("Y1")

# 1 row, 2 columns, second subplot

[Link](1, 2, 2)
[Link](x, y2, color='red', marker='s')
[Link]("Second Subplot")
[Link]("X")
[Link]("Y2")

plt.tight_layout()
[Link]()

• [Link](nrows, ncols, index) selects the current axes.

• Index counts row-wise from top-left to bottom-right (Row major).

Modern Matplotlib

Modern Matplotlib with the Object-Oriented (OO) approach is now the recommended
way to create professional plots.

Why Use OO Style?

• More control over multiple axes, subplots, and figures

• Cleaner and more readable for complex plots
• Avoids side effects of plt (state-based interface)
• Easier to combine multiple plot types

14
Basic Plot

anshulmalik004@[Link]
x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
y = [2, 3, 5, 7, 11]

# Create figure and axes

fig, ax= [Link]()

# Plot data
[Link](x, y, label="Prime numbers", color='blue', linestyle='--', marker='o')

# Add labels and title

ax.set_xlabel("X axis")
ax.set_ylabel("Y axis")
ax.set_title("OO Line Plot Example")

# Add legend and grid

[Link]()
[Link](True)

[Link]()

fig and ax are core objects that give you full control over our plots.
• fig is Figure & it represents the entire figure or canvas.
• ax is Axes & it represents a single plot or graph within the figure.

Subplots

fig, axs = [Link](2, 2, figsize=(8, 6))

axs[0, 0].plot(x, y1)

axs[0, 0].set_title("Top Left")

axs[0, 1].bar(['A','B','C'], [3,5,2])

axs[0, 1].set_title("Top Right")

axs[1, 0].scatter(x, y2)

axs[1, 0].set_title("Bottom Left")

axs[1, 1].hist([1,2,2,3,3,3,4])
axs[1, 1].set_title("Bottom Right")

plt.tight_layout()
[Link]()

| Keep Learning & Keep Exploring!

15