matplotlib.axes.Axes.errorbar

Axes.errorbar(*args, **kwargs)

Plot y versus x as lines and/or markers with attached errorbars.

x, y define the data locations, xerr, yerr define the errorbar sizes. By default, this draws the data markers/lines as well the errorbars. Use fmt='none' to draw errorbars without any data markers.

Parameters:

x, y : scalar or array-like

The data positions.

xerr, yerr : scalar or array-like, shape(N,) or shape(2,N), optional

The errorbar sizes:

• scalar: Symmetric +/- values for all data points.
• shape(N,): Symmetric +/-values for each data point.

• shape(2,N): Separate - and + values for each bar. First row

  contains the lower errors, the second row contains the upper errors.

• None: No errorbar.

See Different ways of specifying error bars for an example on the usage of xerr and yerr.

fmt : plot format string, optional, default: ''

The format for the data points / data lines. See plot for details.

Use 'none' (case insensitive) to plot errorbars without any data markers.

ecolor : mpl color, optional, default: None

A matplotlib color arg which gives the color the errorbar lines. If None, use the color of the line connecting the markers.

elinewidth : scalar, optional, default: None

The linewidth of the errorbar lines. If None, the linewidth of the current style is used.

capsize : scalar, optional, default: None

The length of the error bar caps in points. If None, it will take the value from rcParams["errorbar.capsize"].

capthick : scalar, optional, default: None

An alias to the keyword argument markeredgewidth (a.k.a. mew). This setting is a more sensible name for the property that controls the thickness of the error bar cap in points. For backwards compatibility, if mew or markeredgewidth are given, then they will over-ride capthick. This may change in future releases.

barsabove : bool, optional, default: False

If True, will plot the errorbars above the plot symbols. Default is below.

lolims, uplims, xlolims, xuplims : bool, optional, default: None

These arguments can be used to indicate that a value gives only upper/lower limits. In that case a caret symbol is used to indicate this. lims-arguments may be of the same type as xerr and yerr. To use limits with inverted axes, set_xlim() or set_ylim() must be called before errorbar().

errorevery : positive integer, optional, default: 1

Subsamples the errorbars. e.g., if errorevery=5, errorbars for every 5-th datapoint will be plotted. The data plot itself still shows all data points.

Returns:

container : ErrorbarContainer

The container contains:

• plotline: Line2D instance of x, y plot markers and/or line.
• caplines: A tuple of Line2D instances of the error bar caps.
• barlinecols: A tuple of LineCollection with the horizontal and vertical error ranges.

Other Parameters:

**kwargs :

All other keyword arguments are passed on to the plot command for the markers. For example, this code makes big red squares with thick green edges:

x,y,yerr = rand(3,10)
errorbar(x, y, yerr, marker='s', mfc='red',
         mec='green', ms=20, mew=4)

where mfc, mec, ms and mew are aliases for the longer property names, markerfacecolor, markeredgecolor, markersize and markeredgewidth.

Valid kwargs for the marker properties are Lines2D 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	float (0.0 transparent through 1.0 opaque)
animated	bool
antialiased or aa	bool
clip_box	a Bbox instance
clip_on	bool
clip_path	[(Path, Transform) | Patch | None]
color or c	any matplotlib color
contains	a callable function
dash_capstyle	['butt' | 'round' | 'projecting']
dash_joinstyle	['miter' | 'round' | 'bevel']
dashes	sequence of on/off ink in points
drawstyle	['default' | 'steps' | 'steps-pre' | 'steps-mid' | 'steps-post']
figure	a Figure instance
fillstyle	['full' | 'left' | 'right' | 'bottom' | 'top' | 'none']
gid	an id string
label	object
linestyle or ls	['solid' | 'dashed', 'dashdot', 'dotted' | (offset, on-off-dash-seq) | '-' | '--' | '-.' | ':' | 'None' | ' ' | '']
linewidth or lw	float value in points
marker	A valid marker style
markeredgecolor or mec	any matplotlib color
markeredgewidth or mew	float value in points
markerfacecolor or mfc	any matplotlib color
markerfacecoloralt or mfcalt	any matplotlib color
markersize or ms	float
markevery	[None | int | length-2 tuple of int | slice | list/array of int | float | length-2 tuple of float]
path_effects	AbstractPathEffect
picker	float distance in points or callable pick function fn(artist, event)
pickradius	float distance in points
rasterized	bool or None
sketch_params	(scale: float, length: float, randomness: float)
snap	bool or None
solid_capstyle	['butt' | 'round' | 'projecting']
solid_joinstyle	['miter' | 'round' | 'bevel']
transform	a matplotlib.transforms.Transform instance
url	a url string
visible	bool
xdata	1D array
ydata	1D array
zorder	float

Notes

Note

In addition to the above described arguments, this function can take a data keyword argument. If such a data argument is given, the following arguments are replaced by data[<arg>]:

• All arguments with the following names: 'x', 'xerr', 'y', 'yerr'.