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matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot_date

Axes.plot_date(x, y, fmt='o', tz=None, xdate=True, ydate=False, *, data=None, **kwargs)[source]

Plot coercing the axis to treat floats as dates.

Discouraged

This method exists for historic reasons and will be deprecated in the future.

datetime-like data should directly be plotted using plot.
If you need to plot plain numeric data as Matplotlib date format or need to set a timezone, call ax.xaxis.axis_date / ax.yaxis.axis_date before plot. See Axis.axis_date.

Similar to plot, this plots y vs. x as lines or markers. However, the axis labels are formatted as dates depending on xdate and ydate. Note that plot will work with datetime and numpy.datetime64 objects without resorting to this method.

Parameters

x, yarray-like: The coordinates of the data points. If xdate or ydate is True, the respective values x or y are interpreted as Matplotlib dates.
fmtstr, optional: The plot format string. For details, see the corresponding parameter in plot.
tztimezone string or datetime.tzinfo, default: rcParams["timezone"] (default: 'UTC'): The time zone to use in labeling dates.
xdatebool, default: True: If True, the x-axis will be interpreted as Matplotlib dates.
ydatebool, default: False: If True, the y-axis will be interpreted as Matplotlib dates.

Returns

list of Line2D: Objects representing the plotted data.

Other Parameters

dataindexable object, optional

If given, the following parameters also accept a string s, which is interpreted as data[s] (unless this raises an exception):

x, y

**kwargs

Keyword arguments control the Line2D properties:

Property	Description
`agg_filter`	a filter function, which takes a (m, n, 3) float array and a dpi value, and returns a (m, n, 3) array
`alpha`	scalar or None
`animated`	bool
`antialiased` or aa	bool
`clip_box`	`Bbox`
`clip_on`	bool
`clip_path`	Patch or (Path, Transform) or None
`color` or c	color
`dash_capstyle`	`CapStyle` or {'butt', 'projecting', 'round'}
`dash_joinstyle`	`JoinStyle` or {'miter', 'round', 'bevel'}
`dashes`	sequence of floats (on/off ink in points) or (None, None)
`data`	(2, N) array or two 1D arrays
`drawstyle` or ds	{'default', 'steps', 'steps-pre', 'steps-mid', 'steps-post'}, default: 'default'
`figure`	`Figure`
`fillstyle`	{'full', 'left', 'right', 'bottom', 'top', 'none'}
`gid`	str
`in_layout`	bool
`label`	object
`linestyle` or ls	{'-', '--', '-.', ':', '', (offset, on-off-seq), ...}
`linewidth` or lw	float
`marker`	marker style string, `Path` or `MarkerStyle`
`markeredgecolor` or mec	color
`markeredgewidth` or mew	float
`markerfacecolor` or mfc	color
`markerfacecoloralt` or mfcalt	color
`markersize` or ms	float
`markevery`	None or int or (int, int) or slice or list[int] or float or (float, float) or list[bool]
`path_effects`	`AbstractPathEffect`
`picker`	float or callable[[Artist, Event], tuple[bool, dict]]
`pickradius`	float
`rasterized`	bool
`sketch_params`	(scale: float, length: float, randomness: float)
`snap`	bool or None
`solid_capstyle`	`CapStyle` or {'butt', 'projecting', 'round'}
`solid_joinstyle`	`JoinStyle` or {'miter', 'round', 'bevel'}
`transform`	unknown
`url`	str
`visible`	bool
`xdata`	1D array
`ydata`	1D array
`zorder`	float

Notes

If you are using custom date tickers and formatters, it may be necessary to set the formatters/locators after the call to plot_date. plot_date will set the default tick locator to AutoDateLocator (if the tick locator is not already set to a DateLocator instance) and the default tick formatter to AutoDateFormatter (if the tick formatter is not already set to a DateFormatter instance).