You are reading an old version of the documentation (v3.1.0). For the latest version see https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.get_legend_handles_labels.html
Version 3.1.0
matplotlib
Fork me on GitHub

matplotlib.axes.Axes.get_legend_handles_labels

Axes.get_legend_handles_labels(self, legend_handler_map=None)[source]

Return handles and labels for legend

ax.legend() is equivalent to

h, l = ax.get_legend_handles_labels()
ax.legend(h, l)