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, *, data=None, **kwargs)[source]#

Plot y versus x as lines and/or markers with attached errorbars.

x, y define the data locations, xerr, yerr define the errorbar sizes. By default, this draws the data markers/lines as well as the errorbars. Use fmt='none' to draw errorbars without any data markers.

New in version 3.7: Caps and error lines are drawn in polar coordinates on polar plots.

Parameters:
x, yfloat or array-like

The data positions.

xerr, yerrfloat or array-like, shape(N,) or shape(2, N), optional

The errorbar sizes:

  • scalar: Symmetric +/- values for all data points.

  • shape(N,): Symmetric +/-values for each data point.

  • shape(2, N): Separate - and + values for each bar. First row contains the lower errors, the second row contains the upper errors.

  • None: No errorbar.

All values must be >= 0.

See Different ways of specifying error bars for an example on the usage of xerr and yerr.

fmtstr, default: ''

The format for the data points / data lines. See plot for details.

Use 'none' (case-insensitive) to plot errorbars without any data markers.

ecolorcolor, default: None

The color of the errorbar lines. If None, use the color of the line connecting the markers.

elinewidthfloat, default: None

The linewidth of the errorbar lines. If None, the linewidth of the current style is used.

capsizefloat, default: rcParams["errorbar.capsize"] (default: 0.0)

The length of the error bar caps in points.

capthickfloat, default: None

An alias to the keyword argument 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.

barsabovebool, default: False

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

lolims, uplims, xlolims, xuplimsbool or array-like, default: False

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 scalars, or array-likes of the same length as xerr and yerr. To use limits with inverted axes, set_xlim or set_ylim must be called before errorbar(). Note the tricky parameter names: setting e.g. lolims to True means that the y-value is a lower limit of the True value, so, only an upward-pointing arrow will be drawn!

erroreveryint or (int, int), default: 1

draws error bars on a subset of the data. errorevery =N draws error bars on the points (x[::N], y[::N]). errorevery =(start, N) draws error bars on the points (x[start::N], y[start::N]). e.g. errorevery=(6, 3) adds error bars to the data at (x[6], x[9], x[12], x[15], ...). Used to avoid overlapping error bars when two series share x-axis values.

Returns:
ErrorbarContainer

The container contains:

  • plotline: Line2D instance of x, y plot markers and/or line.

  • caplines: A tuple of Line2D instances of the error bar caps.

  • barlinecols: A tuple of LineCollection with the horizontal and vertical error ranges.

Other Parameters:
dataindexable object, optional

If given, the following parameters also accept a string s, which is interpreted as data[s] (unless this raises an exception):

x, y, xerr, yerr

**kwargs

All other keyword arguments are passed on to the plot call drawing 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:

  • dashes

  • dash_capstyle

  • dash_joinstyle

  • drawstyle

  • fillstyle

  • linestyle

  • marker

  • markeredgecolor

  • markeredgewidth

  • markerfacecolor

  • markerfacecoloralt

  • markersize

  • markevery

  • solid_capstyle

  • solid_joinstyle

Refer to the corresponding Line2D property for more details:

Property

Description

agg_filter

a filter function, which takes a (m, n, 3) float array and a dpi value, and returns a (m, n, 3) array and two offsets from the bottom left corner of the image

alpha

scalar or None

animated

bool

antialiased or aa

bool

clip_box

BboxBase or None

clip_on

bool

clip_path

Patch or (Path, Transform) or None

color or c

color

dash_capstyle

CapStyle or {'butt', 'projecting', 'round'}

dash_joinstyle

JoinStyle or {'miter', 'round', 'bevel'}

dashes

sequence of floats (on/off ink in points) or (None, None)

data

(2, N) array or two 1D arrays

drawstyle or ds

{'default', 'steps', 'steps-pre', 'steps-mid', 'steps-post'}, default: 'default'

figure

Figure

fillstyle

{'full', 'left', 'right', 'bottom', 'top', 'none'}

gapcolor

color or None

gid

str

in_layout

bool

label

object

linestyle or ls

{'-', '--', '-.', ':', '', (offset, on-off-seq), ...}

linewidth or lw

float

marker

marker style string, Path or MarkerStyle

markeredgecolor or mec

color

markeredgewidth or mew

float

markerfacecolor or mfc

color

markerfacecoloralt or mfcalt

color

markersize or ms

float

markevery

None or int or (int, int) or slice or list[int] or float or (float, float) or list[bool]

mouseover

bool

path_effects

list of AbstractPathEffect

picker

float or callable[[Artist, Event], tuple[bool, dict]]

pickradius

float

rasterized

bool

sketch_params

(scale: float, length: float, randomness: float)

snap

bool or None

solid_capstyle

CapStyle or {'butt', 'projecting', 'round'}

solid_joinstyle

JoinStyle or {'miter', 'round', 'bevel'}

transform

unknown

url

str

visible

bool

xdata

1D array

ydata

1D array

zorder

float

Examples using matplotlib.axes.Axes.errorbar#

Errorbar limit selection

Errorbar limit selection

Errorbar subsampling

Errorbar subsampling

Errorbar function

Errorbar function

Different ways of specifying error bars

Different ways of specifying error bars

Including upper and lower limits in error bars

Including upper and lower limits in error bars

Creating boxes from error bars using PatchCollection

Creating boxes from error bars using PatchCollection

Error bar rendering on polar axis

Error bar rendering on polar axis

Legend Demo

Legend Demo

Parasite Simple2

Parasite Simple2

3D errorbars

3D errorbars

Log Demo

Log Demo

errorbar(x, y, yerr, xerr)

errorbar(x, y, yerr, xerr)