matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot_date

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

Plot data that contains dates.

Similar to plot, this plots y vs. x as lines or markers. However, the axis labels are formatted as dates depending on xdate and ydate.

Parameters:	x, y : array-like The coordinates of the data points. If xdate or ydate is True, the respective values x or y are interpreted as Matplotlib dates. fmt : str, optional The plot format string. For details, see the corresponding parameter in plot. tz : [ None | timezone string | tzinfo instance] The time zone to use in labeling dates. If None, defaults to rcParam timezone. xdate : bool, optional, default: True If True, the x-axis will be interpreted as Matplotlib dates. ydate : bool, optional, default: False If True, the y-axis will be interpreted as Matplotlib dates.
Returns:	lines A list of Line2D objects representing the plotted data.
Other Parameters:	**kwargs Keyword arguments control the Line2D properties: Property Description agg_filter a filter function, which takes a (m, n, 3) float array and a dpi value, and returns a (m, n, 3) array alpha float animated bool antialiased bool clip_box Bbox clip_on bool clip_path [(Path, Transform) | Patch | None] color color contains callable dash_capstyle {'butt', 'round', 'projecting'} dash_joinstyle {'miter', 'round', 'bevel'} dashes sequence of floats (on/off ink in points) or (None, None) drawstyle {'default', 'steps', 'steps-pre', 'steps-mid', 'steps-post'} figure Figure fillstyle {'full', 'left', 'right', 'bottom', 'top', 'none'} gid str in_layout bool label object linestyle {'-', '--', '-.', ':', '', (offset, on-off-seq), ...} linewidth float marker unknown markeredgecolor color markeredgewidth float markerfacecolor color markerfacecoloralt color markersize float markevery unknown path_effects AbstractPathEffect picker float or callable[[Artist, Event], Tuple[bool, dict]] pickradius float rasterized bool or None sketch_params (scale: float, length: float, randomness: float) snap bool or None solid_capstyle {'butt', 'round', 'projecting'} solid_joinstyle {'miter', 'round', 'bevel'} transform matplotlib.transforms.Transform url str visible bool xdata 1D array ydata 1D array zorder float

See also

matplotlib.dates

Helper functions on dates.

matplotlib.dates.date2num

Convert dates to num.

matplotlib.dates.num2date

Convert num to dates.

matplotlib.dates.drange

Create an equally spaced sequence of dates.

Notes

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

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'.

Objects passed as data must support item access (data[<arg>]) and membership test (<arg> in data).