[Matplotlib-users] Plotting result of SQL query using pylab "plot"

[Michael J. R. <mic...@fi...>]

Hello list,

So far I'm pleased with matplotlib and python.  I'm a pretty new user and
find the coding very rapid and the ability to glue different database and
statistical programs together pretty slick.  I have a question.

I am retrieving data from a database using an ODBC connection.  When I print
the result set, "sql_result_set", looks like this, a list of tuples (I
think?):

    [(31773, 60.691), (31772, 61.991), ...and so on... (31774, 60.779)]

Each tuple contains the X value and Y value for each coordinate on the line
plot I wish to make.

After experimentation, I found that I could extract 2 vectors, one for x and
one for y, by doing this:

    x_value = [thisrow[0] for thisrow in sql_result_set]
    y_value = [thisrow[1] for thisrow in sql_result_set]

and then fed the result into plot

    plot(x_value, y_value)

Now this works, but seems an inefficient way to do this.

Is there a way to force the plot(x,y) command to recognize my
"sql_result_set" as a list of x,y tuples, instead of splitting the set into
two vectors?  This would seem a natural way for plot to operate.  Somehow I
think the "apply" notation, "*" or "**", might do this, but I'm stuck.

Thanks for your ideas.  Please let me know if I missed the obvious.

Mike Rehberg