In this article, you'll learn how to use markers in Matplotlib to indicate specific points in a plot.
The marker
parameter can be used to create "markers" in a plot. You can specify the shape of the marker by passing a value to the parameter.
Here's what a normal Matplotlib plot looks like:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
x = [2,4,6,8]
y = [1,3,9,7]
plt.plot(x,y)
plt.show()
Here's a plot with a marker:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
x = [2,4,6,8]
y = [1,3,9,7]
plt.plot(x,y, marker = 'o')
plt.show()
As can be seen in the image above, every meeting point for both axis in the plot is denoted by a marker that looks like an circle.
We're able to do that by setting the value of the marker
parameter to "0": plt.plot(x,y, marker = 'o')
.
List of Matplotlib Markers
Here is a list (from the Matplotlib documentation) of marker values that can be assigned to the marker
parameter:
Marker | Description |
---|---|
"." | point |
"," | pixel |
"o" | circle |
"v" | triangle_down |
"^" | triangle_up |
"<" | triangle_left |
">" | triangle_right |
"1" | tri_down |
"2" | tri_up |
"3" | tri_left |
"4" | tri_right |
"8" | octagon |
"s" | square |
"p" | pentagon |
"P" | plus (filled) |
"h" | hexagon1 |
"H" | hexagon2 |
"+" | plus |
"*" | star |
"x" | x |
"X" | x (filled) |
"D" | diamond |
"d" | thin_diamond |
"_" | hline |
"s" | square |
0 | tickleft |
1 | tickright |
2 | tickup |
3 | tickdown |
4 | caretleft |
5 | caretright |
6 | caretup |
7 | caretdown |
8 | caretleft (centered at base) |
9 | caretright (centered at base) |
10 | caretup (centered at base) |
11 | caretdown (centered at base) |
This list above shows the different values you can use to change the style of a marker in a plot.
Summary
In this article, we talked about markers in Matplotlib. They can be used to mark/indicate specific points in a plot.
We saw some code examples showing the application of the marker
parameter.
Lastly, we saw a list of marker
values that can be used to change the style of a marker.
Happy coding!