.. note::
    :class: sphx-glr-download-link-note

    Click :ref:`here <sphx_glr_download_gallery_subplots_axes_and_figures_axes_margins.py>` to download the full example code
.. rst-class:: sphx-glr-example-title

.. _sphx_glr_gallery_subplots_axes_and_figures_axes_margins.py:


=====================================================================
Zooming in and out using Axes.margins and the subject of "stickiness"
=====================================================================

The first figure in this example shows how to zoom in and out of a
plot using `~.Axes.margins` instead of `~.Axes.set_xlim` and
`~.Axes.set_ylim`. The second figure demonstrates the concept of
edge "stickiness" introduced by certain methods and artists and how
to effectively work around that.



.. code-block:: default


    import numpy as np
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt


    def f(t):
        return np.exp(-t) * np.cos(2*np.pi*t)


    t1 = np.arange(0.0, 3.0, 0.01)

    ax1 = plt.subplot(212)
    ax1.margins(0.05)           # Default margin is 0.05, value 0 means fit
    ax1.plot(t1, f(t1))

    ax2 = plt.subplot(221)
    ax2.margins(2, 2)           # Values >0.0 zoom out
    ax2.plot(t1, f(t1))
    ax2.set_title('Zoomed out')

    ax3 = plt.subplot(222)
    ax3.margins(x=0, y=-0.25)   # Values in (-0.5, 0.0) zooms in to center
    ax3.plot(t1, f(t1))
    ax3.set_title('Zoomed in')

    plt.show()





.. image:: /gallery/subplots_axes_and_figures/images/sphx_glr_axes_margins_001.png
    :class: sphx-glr-single-img





On the "stickiness" of certain plotting methods
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Some plotting functions make the axis limits "sticky" or immune to the will
of the `~.Axes.margins` methods. For instance, `~.Axes.imshow` and
`~.Axes.pcolor` expect the user to want the limits to be tight around the
pixels shown in the plot. If this behavior is not desired, you need to set
`~.Axes.use_sticky_edges` to `False`. Consider the following example:


.. code-block:: default


    y, x = np.mgrid[:5, 1:6]
    poly_coords = [
        (0.25, 2.75), (3.25, 2.75),
        (2.25, 0.75), (0.25, 0.75)
    ]
    fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(ncols=2)

    # Here we set the stickiness of the axes object...
    # ax1 we'll leave as the default, which uses sticky edges
    # and we'll turn off stickiness for ax2
    ax2.use_sticky_edges = False

    for ax, status in zip((ax1, ax2), ('Is', 'Is Not')):
        cells = ax.pcolor(x, y, x+y, cmap='inferno')  # sticky
        ax.add_patch(
            plt.Polygon(poly_coords, color='forestgreen', alpha=0.5)
        )  # not sticky
        ax.margins(x=0.1, y=0.05)
        ax.set_aspect('equal')
        ax.set_title('{} Sticky'.format(status))

    plt.show()





.. image:: /gallery/subplots_axes_and_figures/images/sphx_glr_axes_margins_002.png
    :class: sphx-glr-single-img





------------

References
""""""""""

The use of the following functions, methods is shown
in this example:


.. code-block:: default


    import matplotlib
    matplotlib.axes.Axes.margins
    matplotlib.pyplot.margins
    matplotlib.axes.Axes.use_sticky_edges
    matplotlib.axes.Axes.pcolor
    matplotlib.pyplot.pcolor
    matplotlib.pyplot.Polygon








.. _sphx_glr_download_gallery_subplots_axes_and_figures_axes_margins.py:


.. only :: html

 .. container:: sphx-glr-footer
    :class: sphx-glr-footer-example



  .. container:: sphx-glr-download

     :download:`Download Python source code: axes_margins.py <axes_margins.py>`



  .. container:: sphx-glr-download

     :download:`Download Jupyter notebook: axes_margins.ipynb <axes_margins.ipynb>`


.. only:: html

 .. rst-class:: sphx-glr-signature

    Keywords: matplotlib code example, codex, python plot, pyplot
    `Gallery generated by Sphinx-Gallery
    <https://sphinx-gallery.readthedocs.io>`_