.. only:: html .. note:: :class: sphx-glr-download-link-note Click :ref:`here ` to download the full example code .. rst-class:: sphx-glr-example-title .. _sphx_glr_gallery_images_contours_and_fields_pcolormesh_levels.py: ========== pcolormesh ========== `.axes.Axes.pcolormesh` allows you to generate 2-D image-style plots. Note it is faster than the similar `~.axes.Axes.pcolor`. .. code-block:: default import matplotlib import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from matplotlib.colors import BoundaryNorm from matplotlib.ticker import MaxNLocator import numpy as np Basic pcolormesh ---------------- We usually specify a pcolormesh by defining the edge of quadrilaterals and the value of the quadrilateral. Note that here *x* and *y* each have one extra element than Z in the respective dimension. .. code-block:: default np.random.seed(19680801) Z = np.random.rand(6, 10) x = np.arange(-0.5, 10, 1) # len = 11 y = np.arange(4.5, 11, 1) # len = 7 fig, ax = plt.subplots() ax.pcolormesh(x, y, Z) .. image:: /gallery/images_contours_and_fields/images/sphx_glr_pcolormesh_levels_001.png :alt: pcolormesh levels :class: sphx-glr-single-img .. rst-class:: sphx-glr-script-out Out: .. code-block:: none Non-rectilinear pcolormesh -------------------------- Note that we can also specify matrices for *X* and *Y* and have non-rectilinear quadrilaterals. .. code-block:: default x = np.arange(-0.5, 10, 1) # len = 11 y = np.arange(4.5, 11, 1) # len = 7 X, Y = np.meshgrid(x, y) X = X + 0.2 * Y # tilt the coordinates. Y = Y + 0.3 * X fig, ax = plt.subplots() ax.pcolormesh(X, Y, Z) .. image:: /gallery/images_contours_and_fields/images/sphx_glr_pcolormesh_levels_002.png :alt: pcolormesh levels :class: sphx-glr-single-img .. rst-class:: sphx-glr-script-out Out: .. code-block:: none Centered Coordinates --------------------- Often a user wants to pass *X* and *Y* with the same sizes as *Z* to `.axes.Axes.pcolormesh`. This is also allowed if ``shading='auto'`` is passed (default set by :rc:`pcolor.shading`). Pre Matplotlib 3.3, ``shading='flat'`` would drop the last column and row of *Z*; while that is still allowed for back compatibility purposes, a DeprecationWarning is raised. .. code-block:: default x = np.arange(10) # len = 10 y = np.arange(6) # len = 6 X, Y = np.meshgrid(x, y) fig, axs = plt.subplots(2, 1, sharex=True, sharey=True) axs[0].pcolormesh(X, Y, Z, vmin=np.min(Z), vmax=np.max(Z), shading='auto') axs[0].set_title("shading='auto' = 'nearest'") axs[1].pcolormesh(X, Y, Z, vmin=np.min(Z), vmax=np.max(Z), shading='flat') axs[1].set_title("shading='flat'") .. image:: /gallery/images_contours_and_fields/images/sphx_glr_pcolormesh_levels_003.png :alt: shading='auto' = 'nearest', shading='flat' :class: sphx-glr-single-img .. rst-class:: sphx-glr-script-out Out: .. code-block:: none /matplotlib/examples/images_contours_and_fields/pcolormesh_levels.py:67: MatplotlibDeprecationWarning: shading='flat' when X and Y have the same dimensions as C is deprecated since 3.3. Either specify the corners of the quadrilaterals with X and Y, or pass shading='auto', 'nearest' or 'gouraud', or set rcParams['pcolor.shading']. This will become an error two minor releases later. axs[1].pcolormesh(X, Y, Z, vmin=np.min(Z), vmax=np.max(Z), shading='flat') Text(0.5, 1.0, "shading='flat'") Making levels using Norms ------------------------- Shows how to combine Normalization and Colormap instances to draw "levels" in `.axes.Axes.pcolor`, `.axes.Axes.pcolormesh` and `.axes.Axes.imshow` type plots in a similar way to the levels keyword argument to contour/contourf. .. code-block:: default # make these smaller to increase the resolution dx, dy = 0.05, 0.05 # generate 2 2d grids for the x & y bounds y, x = np.mgrid[slice(1, 5 + dy, dy), slice(1, 5 + dx, dx)] z = np.sin(x)**10 + np.cos(10 + y*x) * np.cos(x) # x and y are bounds, so z should be the value *inside* those bounds. # Therefore, remove the last value from the z array. z = z[:-1, :-1] levels = MaxNLocator(nbins=15).tick_values(z.min(), z.max()) # pick the desired colormap, sensible levels, and define a normalization # instance which takes data values and translates those into levels. cmap = plt.get_cmap('PiYG') norm = BoundaryNorm(levels, ncolors=cmap.N, clip=True) fig, (ax0, ax1) = plt.subplots(nrows=2) im = ax0.pcolormesh(x, y, z, cmap=cmap, norm=norm) fig.colorbar(im, ax=ax0) ax0.set_title('pcolormesh with levels') # contours are *point* based plots, so convert our bound into point # centers cf = ax1.contourf(x[:-1, :-1] + dx/2., y[:-1, :-1] + dy/2., z, levels=levels, cmap=cmap) fig.colorbar(cf, ax=ax1) ax1.set_title('contourf with levels') # adjust spacing between subplots so `ax1` title and `ax0` tick labels # don't overlap fig.tight_layout() plt.show() .. image:: /gallery/images_contours_and_fields/images/sphx_glr_pcolormesh_levels_004.png :alt: pcolormesh with levels, contourf with levels :class: sphx-glr-single-img ------------ References """""""""" The use of the following functions and methods is shown in this example: .. code-block:: default matplotlib.axes.Axes.pcolormesh matplotlib.pyplot.pcolormesh matplotlib.axes.Axes.contourf matplotlib.pyplot.contourf matplotlib.figure.Figure.colorbar matplotlib.pyplot.colorbar matplotlib.colors.BoundaryNorm matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator .. rst-class:: sphx-glr-timing **Total running time of the script:** ( 0 minutes 1.170 seconds) .. _sphx_glr_download_gallery_images_contours_and_fields_pcolormesh_levels.py: .. only :: html .. container:: sphx-glr-footer :class: sphx-glr-footer-example .. container:: sphx-glr-download sphx-glr-download-python :download:`Download Python source code: pcolormesh_levels.py ` .. container:: sphx-glr-download sphx-glr-download-jupyter :download:`Download Jupyter notebook: pcolormesh_levels.ipynb ` .. only:: html .. rst-class:: sphx-glr-signature Keywords: matplotlib code example, codex, python plot, pyplot `Gallery generated by Sphinx-Gallery `_