.. _sphx_glr_gallery_lines_bars_and_markers_categorical_variables.py: ============================== Plotting categorical variables ============================== How to use categorical variables in Matplotlib. Many times you want to create a plot that uses categorical variables in Matplotlib. Matplotlib allows you to pass categorical variables directly to many plotting functions, which we demonstrate below. .. code-block:: python import matplotlib.pyplot as plt data = {'apples': 10, 'oranges': 15, 'lemons': 5, 'limes': 20} names = list(data.keys()) values = list(data.values()) fig, axs = plt.subplots(1, 3, figsize=(9, 3), sharey=True) axs[0].bar(names, values) axs[1].scatter(names, values) axs[2].plot(names, values) fig.suptitle('Categorical Plotting') .. image:: /gallery/lines_bars_and_markers/images/sphx_glr_categorical_variables_001.png :align: center This works on both axes: .. code-block:: python cat = ["bored", "happy", "bored", "bored", "happy", "bored"] dog = ["happy", "happy", "happy", "happy", "bored", "bored"] activity = ["combing", "drinking", "feeding", "napping", "playing", "washing"] fig, ax = plt.subplots() ax.plot(activity, dog, label="dog") ax.plot(activity, cat, label="cat") ax.legend() plt.show() .. image:: /gallery/lines_bars_and_markers/images/sphx_glr_categorical_variables_002.png :align: center .. only :: html .. container:: sphx-glr-footer .. container:: sphx-glr-download :download:`Download Python source code: categorical_variables.py ` .. container:: sphx-glr-download :download:`Download Jupyter notebook: categorical_variables.ipynb ` .. only:: html .. rst-class:: sphx-glr-signature `Gallery generated by Sphinx-Gallery `_