Problem importing matplotlib.mlab and .pyplot in python 2.7 on Mac OSX 10.6

Question

I am trying to plot a histogram using matplotlib in Python 2.7 on OSX 10.6

I have verified that I can import numpy, scipy, and matplotlib into python. A sample script on the matplotlib website does

#!/usr/bin/env python
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.mlab as mlab
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

However, I get an error when doing this. Here is what happens when I try to import mlab.

Python 2.7.2 (v2.7.2:8527427914a2, Jun 11 2011, 15:22:34) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import matplotlib.mlab as mlab
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/mlab.py", line 151, in <module>
    import matplotlib.nxutils as nxutils
ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/nxutils.so, 2): no suitable image found.  Did find:
    /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/nxutils.so: no matching architecture in universal wrapper
>>>

What am I doing wrong that I can't import these as the script does?

A related issue: If I try to call matplotlib.pyplot.hist() it doesn't work and gives me an AttributeError saying matplotlib has no attribute 'pyplot', but this is listed in the matplotlib documentation. — Thursdays Coming
– Thursdays Coming, Commented Aug 23, 2011 at 7:14

Ferdinand Beyer · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-23 08:05:15Z

3

For the ImportError: It seems that there is an architecture mismatch. Maybe you have installed a 32-bit version of matplotlib, but are using a 64-bit Python? What does the following shell command print?

file /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/nxutils.so

For the AttributeError: You have to explicitely import matplotlib.pyplot, it won't get imported automatically when just importing matplotlib. The most common aliasing scheme is:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib as mpl
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

Then you can draw your histogram using the plt name:

plt.hist(...)

answered Aug 23, 2011 at 8:05

Ferdinand Beyer

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2 Comments

Thursdays Coming Over a year ago

I think you are correct. I looked into it a little and apparently I am running 64-bit Python. The output from your question is:

/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/nxutils.so: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/nxutils.so (for architecture ppc):	Mach-O bundle ppc /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/nxutils.so (for architecture i386):	Mach-O bundle i386

Thursdays Coming Over a year ago

Is the best option to run python as 32-bit? How would I do this? I also tried looking for a 64-bit matplotlib, but it seemed that to do this for snow leopard is somewhat involved.

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