[Matplotlib-users] clipping feature?

[James B. <bo...@ll...>]

If I set the axis limits to a value less than the actual domain of the 
data, the line is not extended to the edge of the plot but rather is 
only drawn to the final point within the domain. The following 
illustrates what I mean:

ax = subplot(111)
plot([1,2,3,4],'bo', [1,2,3,4],'k')
axis([0.,2.4,1.,4.])

The plot stops at the point (2,3) although the data go to (3,4). When I 
have dealt with these issues, I usually draw the line to its full 
extent and then clip the line so it stops at the edge of the plot 
frame.

I set the axis bounds when I am plotting a number of lines some of 
which have a larger domain. While interested in the behaviour in the 
limited domain, I would like to retain the information that some lines 
extend beyond.
When I first encountered this behaviour, I thought that I had 
mistakenly truncated my input data - I think that the plot should show 
as much of the data passed to it as possible.

Is there something I am missing - or is this a feature?

JIm