matplotlib-users

[Matplotlib-users] Add units to plots?

[Joseph S. <jos...@gm...>]

I have several plots where the scientific notation exponential
overflows to the top of the plot like this:
http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/examples/pylab_examples/plotfile_demo.html.

Is there any way to add units to this?  So that, if I wanted, the
units would show up in the overflow as: 1e8 m^3 , for meters cubed?

Also, is there an easy way to add units to the numbers on the x or y
axis in general?  Thanks.

                                 Joseph Smidt

-- 
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Joseph Smidt <jos...@gm...>

Physics and Astronomy
4129 Frederick Reines Hall
Irvine, CA 92697-4575
Office: 949-824-3269

Re: [Matplotlib-users] Add units to plots?

[John H. <jd...@gm...>]

On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 4:06 PM, Joseph Smidt<jos...@gm...> wrote:
> I have several plots where the scientific notation exponential
> overflows to the top of the plot like this:
> http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/examples/pylab_examples/plotfile_demo.html.
>
> Is there any way to add units to this?  So that, if I wanted, the
> units would show up in the overflow as: 1e8 m^3 , for meters cubed?
>
> Also, is there an easy way to add units to the numbers on the x or y
> axis in general?  Thanks.

You can use a custom formatter, eg::

  from matplotlib.ticker import FormatStrFormatter
  ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter(r'$%.4fm^3'$)  # using mathtext for the
m^3 exponent


See

  http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter

and some code examples

  http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/search.html?q=codex+Formatter

JDH