Bar charts in Python

Categories along one axis, values along the other, labels on the bars.

import matplotlib

matplotlib.use("Agg")
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

langs = ["python", "rust", "c", "sql"]
steps = [143, 181, 165, 45]
order = sorted(range(len(steps)), key=lambda i: steps[i], reverse=True)

figure, axes = plt.subplots()
bars = axes.bar([langs[i] for i in order], [steps[i] for i in order],
                color="#7c5cff")
axes.bar_label(bars, padding=2)
axes.set_ylabel("steps")
axes.set_ylim(0, 210)
figure.savefig("bars.png")

How it works

1. bar is vertical, barh horizontal.
2. bar_label writes the value on each bar.
3. Sorting the data first is what makes a bar chart readable.

Keywords and builtins used here

• as
• for
• lambda
• len
• range
• sorted

The run, in numbers

Lines

16

Characters to type

436

Tokens

149

Three-star pace

105 tpm

At the three-star pace of 105 tokens a minute, this run takes about 85 seconds.

Type this snippet

Step 3 of 5 in Plot types, step 7 of 14 in Plotting with matplotlib.

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Bar charts in other languages

• Igor Pro
• R