matplotlib-users

[Matplotlib-users] making multi panel figures

[Michael R. <raw...@ya...>]

I have about 140 lines of code that makes a map. I'd like to turn it into a program which makes a multiple panel (map) figure. I understand that subplot will help to do this. Ideally I would like the 140 lines to be like a subroutine called in a loop. In the current code there are two variable which would be passed to the subroutine, thetitle and ncfile. These are only two things different for each panel. So something like:

do irow = 1, 3
   do icolumn = 1, 3

      call mapping code (thetitle,ncfile)


    enddo
enddo

Here is the code. If the above method is not possible, I assume I'll need to repeat the 140 lines N times, where N is the number of panels. 


TIA
Mike
############################################################################


verbose=0 #verbose=2 says a bit more

import sys,getopt

from mpl_toolkits.basemap import Basemap, shiftgrid, cm 
#from netCDF3 import Dataset as NetCDFFile 
from mpl_toolkits.basemap import  NetCDFFile
from pylab import *
#from matplotlib.mlab import csv2rec

alloptions, otherargs= getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:],'ro:p:X:Y:v:t:l:u:n:') # note the : after o and p
proj='lam'
#plotfile=None
#plotfile='testmap2.png'
usejetrev=False
colorbounds=[None,None]
extratext=""
xvar=None
yvar=None
thevar=None


#  Here set map title and the file containing gridded data to plot
thetitle='Map Title'
ncfile = NetCDFFile('simple_xy.nc', 'r')   # Here's filename


therec=None
thelev=None
cbot=None
ctop=None
startlon=-180 #default assumption for starting longitude
for theopt,thearg in alloptions:
    print theopt,thearg
    if theopt=='-o': # -o needs filename after it, which is now thearg
        plotfile=thearg    
    elif theopt=='-p': 
        proj=thearg
    elif theopt=='-X': 
        xvar=thearg
    elif theopt=='-Y': 
        yvar=thearg
    elif theopt=='-v': 
        thevar=thearg
    elif theopt=='-t': 
        thetitle=thearg
    elif theopt=='-l': 
        cbot=thearg
    elif theopt=='-u': 
        ctop=thearg
    elif theopt=='-n': 
        therec=thearg
    elif theopt=='-m': 
        thelev=thearg
    elif theopt=='-r': 
        usejetrev=True
    else: #something went wrong
        print "hmm, what are these??? ", theopt, thearg
        sys.exit()

print "\nPlotting, please wait...maybe more than 10 seconds"
if proj=='lam': #Lambert Conformal
    m = Basemap(llcrnrlon=-80.6,llcrnrlat=38.4,urcrnrlon=-66.0,urcrnrlat=47.7,\
            resolution='l',area_thresh=1000.,projection='lcc',\
            lat_1=65.,lon_0=-73.3)
    xtxt=200000. #offset for text
    ytxt=200000.
    parallels = arange(38.,48.,2.)
    meridians = arange(-80.,-64.,2.)
else: #cylindrical is default
#    m = Basemap(llcrnrlon=-180.,llcrnrlat=-90,urcrnrlon=180.,urcrnrlat=90.,\
#            resolution='c',area_thresh=10000.,projection='cyl')
    m = Basemap(llcrnrlon=startlon,llcrnrlat=-90,urcrnrlon=startlon+360.,urcrnrlat=90.,\
            resolution='c',area_thresh=10000.,projection='cyl')
    xtxt=1.
    ytxt=0.
    parallels = arange(-90.,90.,30.)
    if startlon==-180:
        meridians = arange(-180.,180.,60.)
    else:
        meridians = arange(0.,360.,60.)

if verbose>1: print m.__doc__ 
xsize = rcParams['figure.figsize'][0]
fig=figure(figsize=(xsize,m.aspect*xsize))
#ax = fig.add_axes([0.08,0.1,0.7,0.7],axisbg='white')
ax = fig.add_axes([0.07,0.00,0.86,1.0],axisbg='white')
# make a pcolor plot.
#x, y = m(lons, lats)
#p = m.pcolor(x,y,maskdat,shading='flat',cmap=cmap)
#clim(*colorbounds)

# axes units units are left, bottom, width, height
#cax = axes([0.85, 0.1, 0.05, 0.7])  #  colorbar axes for map w/ no graticule
#cax = axes([0.88, 0.1, 0.06, 0.81])  #  colorbar axes for map w/ graticule

axes(ax)  # make the original axes current again

#########    Plot symbol at station locations    #################

# draw coastlines and political boundaries.
m.drawcoastlines()
m.drawcountries()
m.drawstates()
# draw parallels and meridians.
# label on left, right and bottom of map.
#m.drawparallels(parallels,labels=[1,0,0,0])
#m.drawmeridians(meridians,labels=[1,1,0,1])

if not thetitle:
    title(thevar+extratext)
else:
    title(thetitle)

#data = csv2rec('latlon_GHCN.txt',delimiter=' ',names=['lat','lon'])
#for i in range(len(data)):
#    x,y=m(data['lon'][i],data['lat'][i]) # Translate to basemap (Lambert) coordinate space
##    ax.text(x,y,'.')
#    plot(x,y,color='black',marker='.',markersize=6.0)

xpt,ypt = m(-75.0,43.0)
ax.text(xpt,ypt,'*')

    
#if plotfile:
#    savefig(plotfile, dpi=72, facecolor='w', bbox_inches='tight', edgecolor='w', orientation='portrait')
#else:
#    show()

#plt.savefig('map.png')
plt.savefig('map.eps')
show()
#  comment show to mass produce

Re: [Matplotlib-users] making multi panel figures

[Benjamin R. <ben...@ou...>]

Just a quick suggestion for cleaning up your code, please look into the
argparse module to make command-line parsing so much easier to use.

http://docs.python.org/dev/library/argparse.html

Ben Root

Re: [Matplotlib-users] making multi panel figures

[Michael R. <raw...@ya...>]

On 01/12/12 Ben Root wrote: 

Just a quick suggestion for cleaning up your code, please look into the 
argparse module to make command-line parsing so much easier to use.

http://docs.python.org/dev/library/argparse.html


Ben Root



Command line parsing?  I'm new to python and matplotlib and was given this code by a colleague. I've managed to make simple modifications. Don't know enough yet to use the examples in the link you provide. 

I've simplified my code as much as possible.  The first 50 lines make a map. The code below that makes a 4 panel graphic.  Seems that plt.figure invokes a new plot window. But plt.semilogy, plt.loglog, and plt.hist do not, keeping the panels in a single window. This is what I need. Trying now to figure out how to transfer the fig=plt.figure line into the subplot section, without popping up a new window.

Mike


verbose=0 #verbose=2 says a bit more

import sys,getopt

from mpl_toolkits.basemap import Basemap, shiftgrid, cm 
#from netCDF3 import Dataset as NetCDFFile 
from mpl_toolkits.basemap import  NetCDFFile
from pylab import *
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

#fg = plt.figure(figsize=(10,8))
#adj = plt.subplots_adjust(hspace=0.4,wspace=0.4)
#sp = plt.subplot(2,2,1)

#  Here set map title and the file containing gridded data to plot
thetitle='Map #1'
ncfile = NetCDFFile('simple_xy.nc', 'r')   # Here's filename

startlon=-180 #default assumption for starting longitude

m = Basemap(llcrnrlon=-80.6,llcrnrlat=38.4,urcrnrlon=-66.0,urcrnrlat=47.7,\
                resolution='l',area_thresh=1000.,projection='lcc',\
            lat_1=65.,lon_0=-73.3)
xtxt=200000. #offset for text
ytxt=200000.
parallels = arange(38.,48.,2.)
meridians = arange(-80.,-64.,2.)

if verbose>1: print m.__doc__ 
xsize = rcParams['figure.figsize'][0]
fig=plt.figure(figsize=(xsize,m.aspect*xsize))
ax = fig.add_axes([0.07,0.00,0.86,1.0],axisbg='white')
axes(ax)  # make the original axes current again

# draw coastlines and political boundaries.
m.drawcoastlines()
m.drawcountries()
m.drawstates()

if not thetitle:
    title(thevar+extratext)
else:
    title(thetitle)

#plt.show()

##########################################################################
# Example: http://physics.nmt.edu/~raymond/software/python_notes/paper004.html
sp = plt.subplot(2,2,1)
x = linspace(0,10,101)
y = exp(x)
l1 = plt.semilogy(x,y,color='m',linewidth=2)

sp = plt.subplot(2,2,2)
y = x**-1.67
l1 = plt.loglog(x,y)

sp = plt.subplot(2,2,3)
x = arange(1001)
y = mod(x,2.87)
l1 = plt.hist(y,color='r',rwidth = 0.8)

sp = plt.subplot(2,2,4)
l1 = plt.hist(y,bins=25,normed=True,cumulative=True,orientation='horizontal')

plt.show()
#plt.savefig('map.eps')




Just a quick suggestion for cleaning up your code, please look into the argparse module to make command-line parsing so much easier to use.

Re: [Matplotlib-users] making multi panel figures

[Benjamin R. <ben...@ou...>]

On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 2:20 PM, Michael Rawlins <raw...@ya...>wrote:

>
> On 01/12/12 Ben Root wrote:
>
> Just a quick suggestion for cleaning up your code, please look into the
> argparse module to make command-line parsing so much easier to use.
> <http://docs.python.org/dev/library/argparse.html>
> http://docs.python.org/dev/library/argparse.html
>
> Ben Root
>
>
>
> Command line parsing?  I'm new to python and matplotlib and was given this
> code by a colleague. I've managed to make simple modifications. Don't know
> enough yet to use the examples in the link you provide.
>
> I've simplified my code as much as possible.  The first 50 lines make a
> map. The code below that makes a 4 panel graphic.  Seems that plt.figure
> invokes a new plot window. But plt.semilogy, plt.loglog, and plt.hist do
> not, keeping the panels in a single window. This is what I need. Trying now
> to figure out how to transfer the fig=plt.figure line into the subplot
> section, without popping up a new window.
>
> Mike
>
>
>
Ok, a quick crash course:

A "figure" can hold one or more "axes" (or subplots).  When using "plt",
you can choose to make figures explicitly with the "fig = plt.figure()"
command or not.  The same is true for axes objects.  If you call a command
that needs a figure and/or an axes object to have been made and they don't
exist, then they are made for you automatically. Otherwise, the most
recently accessed figure/axes are assumed.  This is why plt.hist(),
plt.semilog() and others are not creating a new figure window if one
already existed.

Anyway, for your code, you do not want to bring in the plt.figure() call
into the subploting section.  The example you were given takes advantage of
pyplot's implicit syntax (where it is implicitly assumed which axes/figure
object you are using). However, I personally do not like that approach, and
instead decided to show you an explicit style.  I created a foobar()
function that takes a blank figure object and other parameters, creates the
four subplot axes and performs drawing on each of them.  Note that the
title is for the subplot, not for the figure.  If you want a title for the
figure above all the other subplots, use "fig.suptitle()".  I then have a
loop where a figure is created each time, the foobar() function acts on
that figure, saved and then cleared before the next iteration.

Note, I noticed you had "plt.show()" commented out before the call to
"plt.savefig()".  Usually, you will want savefig() to come *before* show()
because closing the figure window will destroy the figure object, resulting
in a blank figure to save if done afterwards.

I hope this is helpful!
Ben Root



verbose=0 #verbose=2 says a bit more

import sys,getopt

from mpl_toolkits.basemap import Basemap, shiftgrid, cm
#from netCDF3 import Dataset as NetCDFFile
from mpl_toolkits.basemap import  NetCDFFile
from pylab import *
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

#  Here set map title and the file containing gridded data to plot
thetitle='Map #1'

ncfile = NetCDFFile('simple_xy.nc', 'r')   # Here's filename
startlon=-180 #default assumption for starting longitude

m = Basemap(llcrnrlon=-80.6,llcrnrlat=38.4,urcrnrlon=-66.0,urcrnrlat=47.7,\
                resolution='l',area_thresh=1000.,projection='lcc',\
             lat_1=65.,lon_0=-73.3)
xtxt=200000. #offset for text
ytxt=200000.
parallels = arange(38.,48.,2.)
meridians = arange(-80.,-64.,2.)

if verbose>1: print m.__doc__
xsize = rcParams['figure.figsize'][0]

for fig_index in range(140) :
    fig=plt.figure(figsize=(xsize,m.aspect*xsize))
    fig.subplots_adjust(hspace=0.4, wspace=0.4)

    if not thetitle :
        title = thevar + extratext
    else :
        title = thetitle

    foobar(fig, m, title)

    fig.savefig("map_%d.eps" % fig_index)
    plt.clf()   # Clears the figure object

def foobar(fig, m, title) :
    fig.subplots_adjust(hspace=0.4,wspace=0.4)
    ax = fig.add_subplot(2,2,1)
    # draw coastlines and political boundaries.
    m.drawcoastlines(ax=ax)
    m.drawcountries(ax=ax)
    m.drawstates(ax=ax)
    title(title)

    x = linspace(0,10,101)
    y = exp(x)
    l1 = ax.semilogy(x,y,color='m',linewidth=2)

   ax = fig.add_subplot(2,2,2)
   y = x**-1.67
   l1 = ax.loglog(x,y)

   ax = fig.add_subplot(2,2,3)
   x = arange(1001)
   y = mod(x,2.87)
   l1 = ax.hist(y,color='r',rwidth = 0.8)

   ax = fig.add_subplot(2,2,4)
   l1 =
plt.hist(y,bins=25,normed=True,cumulative=True,orientation='horizontal')

Re: [Matplotlib-users] making multi panel figures

[Michael R. <raw...@ya...>]

On 01/12/12 Ben Root wrote: 

On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 2:20 PM, Michael Rawlins <raw...@ya...> wrote:


>On 01/12/12 Ben Root wrote: 
>
>Just a quick suggestion for cleaning up your code, please look into the 
argparse module to make command-line parsing so much easier to use.
>
>http://docs.python.org/dev/library/argparse.html
>
>
>Ben Root
>
>
>
>Command line parsing?  I'm new to python and matplotlib and was given this code by a colleague. I've managed to make simple modifications. Don't know enough yet to use the examples in the link you provide. 
>
>I've simplified my code as much as possible.  The first 50 lines make a map. The code below that makes a 4 panel graphic.  Seems that plt.figure invokes a new plot window. But plt.semilogy, plt.loglog, and plt.hist do not, keeping the panels in a single window. This is what I need. Trying now to figure out how to transfer the fig=plt.figure line into the subplot section, without popping up a new window.
>
>Mike
>
>
>

Ok, a quick crash course:

A "figure" can hold one or more "axes" (or subplots).  When using "plt", you can choose to make figures explicitly with the "fig = plt.figure()" command or not.  The same is true for axes objects.  If you call a command that needs a figure and/or an axes object to have been made and they don't exist, then they are made for you automatically. Otherwise, the most recently accessed figure/axes are assumed.  This is why plt.hist(), plt.semilog() and others are not creating a new figure window if one already existed.

Anyway, for your code, you do not want to bring in the plt.figure() call into the subploting section.  The example you were given takes advantage of pyplot's implicit syntax (where it is implicitly assumed which axes/figure object you are using). However, I personally do not like that approach, and instead decided to show you an explicit style.  I created a foobar() function that takes a blank figure object and other parameters, creates the four subplot axes and performs drawing on each of them.  Note that the title is for the subplot, not for the figure.  If you want a title for the figure above all the other subplots, use "fig.suptitle()".  I then have a loop where a figure is created each time, the foobar() function acts on that figure, saved and then cleared before the next iteration.

Note, I noticed you had "plt.show()" commented out before the call to "plt.savefig()".  Usually, you will want savefig() to come *before* show() because closing the figure window will destroy the figure object, resulting in a blank figure to save if done afterwards.

I hope this is helpful!
Ben Root




OK starting to make sense. Yes very helpful.  I think what's you've set up might work, provided I can pass a filename for data into the function.

At the moment I'm getting an error:

NameError: name 'foobar' is not defined

for the line with:  foobar(fig, m, title)

Mike

Re: [Matplotlib-users] making multi panel figures

[Benjamin R. <ben...@ou...>]

On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 4:00 PM, Michael Rawlins <raw...@ya...>wrote:

>
>  On 01/12/12 Ben Root wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 2:20 PM, Michael Rawlins <raw...@ya...>wrote:
>
>
> On 01/12/12 Ben Root wrote:
>
> Just a quick suggestion for cleaning up your code, please look into the
> argparse module to make command-line parsing so much easier to use.
> <http://docs.python.org/dev/library/argparse.html>
> http://docs.python.org/dev/library/argparse.html
>
> Ben Root
>
>
>
> Command line parsing?  I'm new to python and matplotlib and was given this
> code by a colleague. I've managed to make simple modifications. Don't know
> enough yet to use the examples in the link you provide.
>
> I've simplified my code as much as possible.  The first 50 lines make a
> map. The code below that makes a 4 panel graphic.  Seems that plt.figure
> invokes a new plot window. But plt.semilogy, plt.loglog, and plt.hist do
> not, keeping the panels in a single window. This is what I need. Trying now
> to figure out how to transfer the fig=plt.figure line into the subplot
> section, without popping up a new window.
>
> Mike
>
>
>
> Ok, a quick crash course:
>
> A "figure" can hold one or more "axes" (or subplots).  When using "plt",
> you can choose to make figures explicitly with the "fig = plt.figure()"
> command or not.  The same is true for axes objects.  If you call a command
> that needs a figure and/or an axes object to have been made and they don't
> exist, then they are made for you automatically. Otherwise, the most
> recently accessed figure/axes are assumed.  This is why plt.hist(),
> plt.semilog() and others are not creating a new figure window if one
> already existed.
>
> Anyway, for your code, you do not want to bring in the plt.figure() call
> into the subploting section.  The example you were given takes advantage of
> pyplot's implicit syntax (where it is implicitly assumed which axes/figure
> object you are using). However, I personally do not like that approach, and
> instead decided to show you an explicit style.  I created a foobar()
> function that takes a blank figure object and other parameters, creates the
> four subplot axes and performs drawing on each of them.  Note that the
> title is for the subplot, not for the figure.  If you want a title for the
> figure above all the other subplots, use "fig.suptitle()".  I then have a
> loop where a figure is created each time, the foobar() function acts on
> that figure, saved and then cleared before the next iteration.
>
> Note, I noticed you had "plt.show()" commented out before the call to
> "plt.savefig()".  Usually, you will want savefig() to come *before* show()
> because closing the figure window will destroy the figure object, resulting
> in a blank figure to save if done afterwards.
>
> I hope this is helpful!
> Ben Root
>
>
>
>
> OK starting to make sense. Yes very helpful.  I think what's you've set up
> might work, provided I can pass a filename for data into the function.
>
> At the moment I'm getting an error:
>
> NameError: name 'foobar' is not defined
>
> for the line with:  foobar(fig, m, title)
>
> Mike
>
>
My bad... I put the declaration of the foobar() function after it is called
in the script.  This isn't an issue if they are in separate scopes, but
because "def foobar" is in the same scope as the call to it, it must have
already been declared before it gets called. Just move that function to the
area after all the imports.

Ben Root

Re: [Matplotlib-users] making multi panel figures

[Michael R. <raw...@ya...>]

On 01/12/12 Ben Root wrote: 


On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 4:00 PM, Michael Rawlins <raw...@ya...> wrote:


>
>On 01/12/12 Ben Root wrote: 
>
>On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 2:20 PM, Michael Rawlins <raw...@ya...> wrote:
>
>
>>On 01/12/12 Ben Root wrote: 
>>
>>Just a quick suggestion for cleaning up your code, please look into the 
argparse module to make command-line parsing so much easier to use.
>>
>>http://docs.python.org/dev/library/argparse.html
>>
>>
>>Ben Root
>>
>>
>>
>>Command line parsing?  I'm new to python and matplotlib and was given this code by a colleague. I've managed to make simple modifications. Don't know enough yet to use the examples in the link you provide. 
>>
>>I've simplified my code as much as possible.  The first 50 lines make a map. The code below that makes a 4 panel graphic.  Seems that plt.figure invokes a new plot window. But plt.semilogy, plt.loglog, and plt.hist do not, keeping the panels in a single window. This is what I need. Trying now to figure out how to transfer the fig=plt.figure line into the subplot section, without popping up a new window.
>>
>>Mike
>>
>>
>>
>
>Ok, a quick crash course:
>
>A "figure" can hold one or more "axes" (or subplots).  When using "plt", you can choose to make figures explicitly with the "fig = plt.figure()" command or not.  The same is true for axes objects.  If you call a command that needs a figure and/or an axes object to have been made and they don't exist, then they are made for you automatically. Otherwise, the most recently accessed figure/axes are assumed.  This is why plt.hist(), plt.semilog() and others are not creating a new figure window if one already existed.
>
>Anyway, for your code, you do not want to bring in the plt.figure() call into the subploting section.  The example you were given takes advantage of pyplot's implicit syntax (where it is implicitly assumed which axes/figure object you are using). However, I personally do not like that approach, and instead decided to show you an explicit style.  I created a foobar() function that takes a blank figure object and other parameters, creates the four subplot axes and performs drawing on each of them.  Note that the title is for the subplot, not for the figure.  If you want a title for the figure above all the other subplots, use "fig.suptitle()".  I then have a loop where a figure is created each time, the foobar() function acts on that figure, saved and then cleared before the next iteration.
>
>Note, I noticed you had "plt.show()" commented out before the call to "plt.savefig()".  Usually, you will want savefig() to come *before* show() because closing the figure window will destroy the figure object, resulting in a blank figure to save if done afterwards.
>
>I hope this is helpful!
>Ben Root
>
>
>
>
>OK starting to make sense. Yes very helpful.  I think what's you've set up might work, provided I can pass a filename for data into the function.
>
>At the moment I'm getting an error:
>
>NameError: name 'foobar' is not defined
>
>for the line with:  foobar(fig, m, title)
>
>Mike
>
>

My bad... I put the declaration of the foobar() function after it is called in the script.  This isn't an issue if they are in separate scopes, but because "def foobar" is in the same scope as the call to it, it must have already been declared before it gets called. Just move that function to the area after all the imports.

Ben Root


Thanks for the help.  Code throwing another error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "panels_testingNEW4.py", line 69, in <module>
    foobar(fig, m, title)
  File "panels_testingNEW4.py", line 23, in foobar
    title(title)
TypeError: 'str' object is not callable

Re: [Matplotlib-users] making multi panel figures

[Benjamin R. <ben...@ou...>]

On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 4:32 PM, Michael Rawlins <raw...@ya...>wrote:

> On 01/12/12 Ben Root wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 4:00 PM, Michael Rawlins <raw...@ya...>wrote:
>
>
>  On 01/12/12 Ben Root wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 2:20 PM, Michael Rawlins <raw...@ya...>wrote:
>
>
> On 01/12/12 Ben Root wrote:
>
> Just a quick suggestion for cleaning up your code, please look into the
> argparse module to make command-line parsing so much easier to use.
> <http://docs.python.org/dev/library/argparse.html>
> http://docs.python.org/dev/library/argparse.html
>
> Ben Root
>
>
>
> Command line parsing?  I'm new to python and matplotlib and was given this
> code by a colleague. I've managed to make simple modifications. Don't know
> enough yet to use the examples in the link you provide.
>
> I've simplified my code as much as possible.  The first 50 lines make a
> map. The code below that makes a 4 panel graphic.  Seems that plt.figure
> invokes a new plot window. But plt.semilogy, plt.loglog, and plt.hist do
> not, keeping the panels in a single window. This is what I need. Trying now
> to figure out how to transfer the fig=plt.figure line into the subplot
> section, without popping up a new window.
>
> Mike
>
>
>
> Ok, a quick crash course:
>
> A "figure" can hold one or more "axes" (or subplots).  When using "plt",
> you can choose to make figures explicitly with the "fig = plt.figure()"
> command or not.  The same is true for axes objects.  If you call a command
> that needs a figure and/or an axes object to have been made and they don't
> exist, then they are made for you automatically. Otherwise, the most
> recently accessed figure/axes are assumed.  This is why plt.hist(),
> plt.semilog() and others are not creating a new figure window if one
> already existed.
>
> Anyway, for your code, you do not want to bring in the plt.figure() call
> into the subploting section.  The example you were given takes advantage of
> pyplot's implicit syntax (where it is implicitly assumed which axes/figure
> object you are using). However, I personally do not like that approach, and
> instead decided to show you an explicit style.  I created a foobar()
> function that takes a blank figure object and other parameters, creates the
> four subplot axes and performs drawing on each of them.  Note that the
> title is for the subplot, not for the figure.  If you want a title for the
> figure above all the other subplots, use "fig.suptitle()".  I then have a
> loop where a figure is created each time, the foobar() function acts on
> that figure, saved and then cleared before the next iteration.
>
> Note, I noticed you had "plt.show()" commented out before the call to
> "plt.savefig()".  Usually, you will want savefig() to come *before* show()
> because closing the figure window will destroy the figure object, resulting
> in a blank figure to save if done afterwards.
>
> I hope this is helpful!
> Ben Root
>
>
>
>
> OK starting to make sense. Yes very helpful.  I think what's you've set up
> might work, provided I can pass a filename for data into the function.
>
> At the moment I'm getting an error:
>
> NameError: name 'foobar' is not defined
>
> for the line with:  foobar(fig, m, title)
>
> Mike
>
>
> My bad... I put the declaration of the foobar() function after it is
> called in the script.  This isn't an issue if they are in separate scopes,
> but because "def foobar" is in the same scope as the call to it, it must
> have already been declared before it gets called. Just move that function
> to the area after all the imports.
>
> Ben Root
>
>
> Thanks for the help.  Code throwing another error:
>
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "panels_testingNEW4.py", line 69, in <module>
>     foobar(fig, m, title)
>   File "panels_testingNEW4.py", line 23, in foobar
>     title(title)
> TypeError: 'str' object is not callable
>
>
Oh, right, the creation of the "title" variable got rid of the existing
function.  Just do "ax.set_title(title)" instead.

Ben Root