Remove the extra plot in the matplotlib subplot

Question

I want to plot 5 data frames in a 2 by 3 setting (i.e. 2 rows and 3 columns). This is my code: However there is an extra empty plot in the 6th position (second row and third column) which I want to get rid of it. I am wondering how I could remove it so that I have three plots in the first row and two plots in the second row.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=3)

fig.set_figheight(8)
fig.set_figwidth(15)



df[2].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[0,0]); axes[0,0].set_title('2')

df[4].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[0,1]); axes[0,1].set_title('4')

df[6].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[0,2]); axes[0,2].set_title('6')

df[8].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[1,0]); axes[1,0].set_title('8')

df[10].plot(kind='bar',ax=axes[1,1]); axes[1,1].set_title('10')

plt.setp(axes, xticks=np.arange(len(observations)), xticklabels=map(str,observations),
        yticks=[0,1])

fig.tight_layout()

Gilfoyle · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-28 17:18:01Z

102

Try this:

fig.delaxes(axes[1][2])

A much more flexible way to create subplots is the fig.add_axes() method. The parameters is a list of rect coordinates: fig.add_axes([x, y, xsize, ysize]). The values are relative to the canvas size, so an xsize of 0.5 means the subplot has half the width of the window.

edited Apr 28, 2020 at 17:18

Gilfoyle

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answered Jul 7, 2017 at 23:08

Johannes

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7 Comments

HimanAB Over a year ago

Thanks. It worked. Do you know how to move the two plots to the center?

Johannes Over a year ago

If you want a subplot layout other than a regular grid, it is usually easier to use the fig.add_axes() method. It takes the coordinates of a rectangle (as a list) and returns a single axes object. The coordinates are relative to the window size. Il put an example in my answer.

ImportanceOfBeingErnest Over a year ago

Using add_axes is neither a very good nor recommended way of producing subplots. Either plt.subplots or Gridspec would be the ways to go and delaxes or ax.axis("off") can be used to delete or hide the subplot.

Johannes Over a year ago

Can you please explain why? I understand that in most cases plt.subplots is sufficient, and then it is the recommended way. But in situations like this or if you want overlapping subplots I think this is the way to go.

Rebel Over a year ago

Hi Johannes, What if I have defined my axes this way: f, ((ax1, ax2), (ax3, ax4), (ax5, ax6), (ax7, ax8)) = plt.subplots(4, 2, sharex=True, sharey=True , figsize=(10,20)) and I don't need my ax8?

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ksha · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-14 16:50:49Z

45

Alternatively, using axes method set_axis_off():

axes[1,2].set_axis_off()

answered Dec 14, 2018 at 16:50

ksha

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4 Comments

Addison Klinke Over a year ago

I find this easier to implement than @Johannes suggestion when I don't know the number of rows/cols ahead of time

3kstc Over a year ago

I can't seem to make this work with the very first row of plots, ie axes[0,2].set_axis_off(). It throws a IndexError: too many indices for array. The subplots are 1 row of 4 columns. Any pointers on how to implement this on the first row?

ksha Over a year ago

In your case, axes is no longer a 2-D grid, it is a 1-D array of subplot objects. So you need to set axes[2].set_axis_off().

DJV Over a year ago

'[p.set_axis_off() for p in [i for i in axes.flatten() if len(i.get_title()) < 1]] '

Jaswanth Kumar · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-20 02:51:59Z

18

If you know which plot to remove, you can give the index and remove like this:

axes.flat[-1].set_visible(False) # to remove last plot

answered Mar 20, 2019 at 2:51

Jaswanth Kumar

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Comments

mangoUnchained · Accepted Answer · 2023-05-17 06:33:41Z

12

A lazier version of Johannes's answers is to remove any axes that haven't had data added to them. This avoids maintaining a specification of which axes to remove.

[fig.delaxes(ax) for ax in axes.flatten() if not ax.has_data()]

answered May 17, 2023 at 6:33

mangoUnchained

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Comments

komodovaran_ · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-25 12:09:13Z

11

Turn off all axes, and turn them on one-by-one only when you're plotting on them. Then you don't need to know the index ahead of time, e.g.:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

columns = ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=len(columns))

for ax in axes:
    ax.set_axis_off()

for c, ax in zip(columns, axes):
    if c == "d":
        print("I didn't actually need 'd'")
        continue

    ax.set_axis_on()
    ax.set_title(c)

plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

answered Mar 25, 2021 at 12:09

komodovaran_

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3 Comments

Julian Moore Over a year ago

+1 because it works best when I write a general plotting routine and don't know how many subplots there are going to be. All other answers were strictly correct w.r.t. the OP's question, but this is more generic.

snail123815 Over a year ago

-1 because it will not work if you add sharex=True in subplots call. Nether for other solutions like delaxes and set_axis_off.

kluonk Over a year ago

I'm surprised to read it does not work with sharex=True because in my case it works even before I knew about the comment. Maybe it was fixed in the matplotlib version I use. (At the time of writing: 3.7.2 )

snail123815 · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-01 13:43:42Z

Previous solutions do not work with sharex=True. If you have that, please consider the solution below, it also deals with 2 dimensional subplot layout.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt


columns = ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
fig, axes = plt.subplots(4,1, sharex=True)


plotted = {}
for c, ax in zip(columns, axes.ravel()):
    plotted[ax] = 0
    if c == "d":
        print("I didn't actually need 'd'")
        continue
    ax.plot([1,2,3,4,5,6,5,4,6,7])
    ax.set_title(c)
    plotted[ax] = 1

if axes.ndim == 2:
    for a, axs in enumerate(reversed(axes)):
        for b, ax in enumerate(reversed(axs)):
            if plotted[ax] == 0:
                # one can use get_lines(), get_images(), findobj() for the propose
                ax.set_axis_off()
                # now find the plot above
                axes[-2-a][-1-b].xaxis.set_tick_params(which='both', labelbottom=True)
            else:
                break # usually only the last few plots are empty, but delete this line if not the case
else:
    for i, ax in enumerate(reversed(axes)):
        if plotted[ax] == 0:
            ax.set_axis_off()
            axes[-2-i].xaxis.set_tick_params(which='both', labelbottom=True)
            # should also work with horizontal subplots
            # all modifications to the tick params should happen after this
        else:
            break

plt.show()

2 dimensional fig, axes = plot.subplots(2,2, sharex=True)

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