matplotlib.axes.Axes.errorbar

Axes.errorbar(x, y, yerr=None, xerr=None, fmt='', ecolor=None, elinewidth=None, capsize=None, barsabove=False, lolims=False, uplims=False, xlolims=False, xuplims=False, errorevery=1, capthick=None, **kwargs)

Plot an errorbar graph.

Plot x versus y with error deltas in yerr and xerr. Vertical errorbars are plotted if yerr is not None. Horizontal errorbars are plotted if xerr is not None.

x, y, xerr, and yerr can all be scalars, which plots a single error bar at x, y.

Parameters:

x : scalar

y : scalar

xerr/yerr : scalar or array-like, shape(n,1) or shape(2,n), optional

If a scalar number, len(N) array-like object, or an Nx1 array-like object, errorbars are drawn at +/-value relative to the data. Default is None.

If a sequence of shape 2xN, errorbars are drawn at -row1 and +row2 relative to the data.

fmt : plot format string, optional, default: None

The plot format symbol. If fmt is ‘none’ (case-insensitive), only the errorbars are plotted. This is used for adding errorbars to a bar plot, for example. Default is ‘’, an empty plot format string; properties are then identical to the defaults for plot().

ecolor : mpl color, optional, default: None

A matplotlib color arg which gives the color the errorbar lines; if None, use the color of the line connecting the markers.

elinewidth : scalar, optional, default: None

The linewidth of the errorbar lines. If None, use the linewidth.

capsize : scalar, optional, default: None

The length of the error bar caps in points; if None, it will take the value from errorbar.capsize rcParam.

capthick : scalar, optional, default: None

An alias kwarg to markeredgewidth (a.k.a. - mew). This setting is a more sensible name for the property that controls the thickness of the error bar cap in points. For backwards compatibility, if mew or markeredgewidth are given, then they will over-ride capthick. This may change in future releases.

barsabove : bool, optional, default: False

if True , will plot the errorbars above the plot symbols. Default is below.

lolims / uplims / xlolims / xuplims : bool, optional, default:None

These arguments can be used to indicate that a value gives only upper/lower limits. In that case a caret symbol is used to indicate this. lims-arguments may be of the same type as xerr and yerr. To use limits with inverted axes, set_xlim() or set_ylim() must be called before errorbar().

errorevery : positive integer, optional, default:1

subsamples the errorbars. e.g., if errorevery=5, errorbars for every 5-th datapoint will be plotted. The data plot itself still shows all data points.

Returns:

plotline : Line2D instance

x, y plot markers and/or line

caplines : list of Line2D instances

error bar cap

barlinecols : list of LineCollection

horizontal and vertical error ranges.

Other Parameters:  

kwargs : All other keyword arguments are passed on to the plot

command for the markers. For example, this code makes big red squares with thick green edges:

x,y,yerr = rand(3,10)
errorbar(x, y, yerr, marker='s', mfc='red',
         mec='green', ms=20, mew=4)

where mfc, mec, ms and mew are aliases for the longer property names, markerfacecolor, markeredgecolor, markersize and markeredgewidth.

valid kwargs for the marker properties are

Property	Description
agg_filter	unknown
alpha	float (0.0 transparent through 1.0 opaque)
animated	[True | False]
antialiased or aa	[True | False]
axes	an Axes instance
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

Examples

(Source code, png, pdf)

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’, ‘xerr’, ‘y’, ‘yerr’.