matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot_date

Axes.plot_date(x, y, fmt='o', tz=None, xdate=True, ydate=False, *, data=None, **kwargs)

A plot with data that contains dates.

Similar to the plot() command, except the x or y (or both) data is considered to be dates, and the axis is labeled accordingly.

x and/or y can be a sequence of dates represented as float days since 0001-01-01 UTC.

Note if you are using custom date tickers and formatters, it may be necessary to set the formatters/locators after the call to plot_date() since plot_date() will set the default tick locator to matplotlib.dates.AutoDateLocator (if the tick locator is not already set to a matplotlib.dates.DateLocator instance) and the default tick formatter to matplotlib.dates.AutoDateFormatter (if the tick formatter is not already set to a matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter instance).

Parameters:	fmt : string The plot format string. tz : [ None | timezone string | tzinfo instance] The time zone to use in labeling dates. If None, defaults to rc value. xdate : boolean If True, the x-axis will be labeled with dates. ydate : boolean If True, the y-axis will be labeled with dates.
Returns:	lines
Other Parameters:
	**kwargs : Keyword arguments control the Line2D properties: Property Description agg_filter unknown alpha float (0.0 transparent through 1.0 opaque) animated [True | False] antialiased or aa [True | False] clip_box a matplotlib.transforms.Bbox instance clip_on [True | False] clip_path [ (Path, Transform) | Patch | None ] color or c any matplotlib color contains a callable function dash_capstyle [‘butt’ | ‘round’ | ‘projecting’] dash_joinstyle [‘miter’ | ‘round’ | ‘bevel’] dashes sequence of on/off ink in points drawstyle [‘default’ | ‘steps’ | ‘steps-pre’ | ‘steps-mid’ | ‘steps-post’] figure a matplotlib.figure.Figure instance fillstyle [‘full’ | ‘left’ | ‘right’ | ‘bottom’ | ‘top’ | ‘none’] gid an id string label string or anything printable with ‘%s’ conversion. linestyle or ls [‘solid’ | ‘dashed’, ‘dashdot’, ‘dotted’ | (offset, on-off-dash-seq) | '-' | '--' | '-.' | ':' | 'None' | ' ' | ''] linewidth or lw float value in points marker A valid marker style markeredgecolor or mec any matplotlib color markeredgewidth or mew float value in points markerfacecolor or mfc any matplotlib color markerfacecoloralt or mfcalt any matplotlib color markersize or ms float markevery [None | int | length-2 tuple of int | slice | list/array of int | float | length-2 tuple of float] path_effects unknown picker float distance in points or callable pick function fn(artist, event) pickradius float distance in points rasterized [True | False | None] sketch_params unknown snap unknown solid_capstyle [‘butt’ | ‘round’ | ‘projecting’] solid_joinstyle [‘miter’ | ‘round’ | ‘bevel’] transform a matplotlib.transforms.Transform instance url a url string visible [True | False] xdata 1D array ydata 1D array zorder any number .. note:: In addition to the above described arguments, this function can take a data keyword argument. If such a data argument is given, the following arguments are replaced by data[<arg>]: All arguments with the following names: ‘x’, ‘y’.

See also

matplotlib.dates

helper functions on dates

matplotlib.dates.date2num

how to convert dates to num

matplotlib.dates.num2date

how to convert num to dates

matplotlib.dates.drange

how floating point dates