Matplotlib troubleshooting, matplotlib.pyplot.xlim()

Question

I am having difficulty understanding how matplotlib.pyplot.xlim() works.

I am plotting a simple plot of x values vs y values. The y values are numerical points in the range of 100-600. The x values are of magnitude e-09 to e-13. So, I plot x against y. This is my plot, with generic pseudocode

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt 

x = np.array
y = np.array

plt.plot(x,y)
plt.ylim(0,400)
plt.show()

enter image description here

As you can tell, there's plenty of structure between 0 and 0.5. I would like to look at that.

So, I try

plt.plot(x,y)
plt.xlim(0,0.5)
plt.ylim(0,400)
plt.show()

The output plot is completely blank. I see nothing.

So, I try, xlim= -1 to +1

plt.plot(x,y)
plt.xlim(-1,1)
plt.ylim(0,400)
plt.show()

This is the output plot.

enter image description here

Using the origninal plot, how can I set the x-axis to see the actual data?

Srivatsan · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-18 19:25:37Z

2

As you clearly mentioned

The x values are of magnitude e-09 to e-13.

So if you want to see the values that lie within 1e-8 and 0.5e-9 you should do:

plt.xlim(1e-8,0.5e-9)

instead of

plt.xlim(0,0.5)

where you have no values to show as the values of x are within e-09 to e-13.

answered Jun 18, 2015 at 19:25

Srivatsan

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plonser · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-19 08:24:26Z

1

If your x-values are of magnitude of 1e-9 till 1e-13 you have completely different length scales. In this case a logarithmic axis may be appropriate. Note that this works only if all x-values are strictly positive.

plt.xscale('log')

edited Jun 19, 2015 at 8:24

answered Jun 18, 2015 at 20:33

plonser

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