Re: [Matplotlib-users] Formatting numbers with exponent with matplotlib

[Darren D. <dsd...@gm...>]

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 6:04 AM, Ralph Kube <ral...@go...> wrote:
> Hello folks.
> I am trying to teach pylab to use latex to write numbers with an
> exponent in the plot legend.
> So far my plot labels are formatted with scientific notation, where
> I use the format operate:
>
> import pylab
> ra_list,b = data
> pylab.plot(ra_list,b, label='Ra = ' + "{0:4.2e}".format(ra_list[i]))
> pylab.legend()
> pylab.show()
>
> What I ultimately want is that the exponent shows up as an exponent,
> a la LaTeX style in the legend: $\mathrm{Ra} = 10^6$.
>
> Does anybody know of a way how to do this with pylab?

I suggest having a look at the ScalarFormatter classer in ticker.py.
The feature you are looking for has already been implemented there.

Darren