Python Matplotlib Introduction

What is Matplotlib?

Matplotlib is a comprehensive library for creating static, animated, and interactive visualizations in Python. It is particularly well-suited for creating plots, charts, and graphs from data stored in arrays and dataframes. The library is highly customizable and integrates well with other Python libraries like NumPy, pandas, and SciPy.

Key Components of Matplotlib

• Pyplot: A module in Matplotlib that provides a MATLAB-like interface. It is the simplest way to create plots.
• Figure: The overall window or page that everything is drawn on. You can think of it as a canvas.
• Axes: The part of the figure where the data is plotted. A figure can contain multiple axes.
• Artist: Everything in Matplotlib is an artist, such as figures, axes, labels, lines, and so on.

Basic Steps to Create a Plot

1. Import the necessary libraries.
2. Create data for plotting.
3. Create a figure and an axes.
4. Plot data.
5. Customize the plot (optional).
6. Show or save the plot.