Add x and y labels to a pandas plot

Question

Suppose I have the following code that plots something very simple using pandas:

import pandas as pd
values = [[1, 2], [2, 5]]
df2 = pd.DataFrame(values, columns=['Type A', 'Type B'], 
                   index=['Index 1', 'Index 2'])
df2.plot(lw=2, colormap='jet', marker='.', markersize=10, 
         title='Video streaming dropout by category')

How do I easily set x and y-labels while preserving my ability to use specific colormaps? I noticed that the plot() wrapper for pandas DataFrames doesn't take any parameters specific for that.

Answer 1

The df.plot() function returns a matplotlib.axes.AxesSubplot object. You can set the labels on that object.

ax = df2.plot(lw=2, colormap='jet', marker='.', markersize=10, title='Video streaming dropout by category')
ax.set_xlabel("x label")
ax.set_ylabel("y label")

Or, more succinctly: ax.set(xlabel="x label", ylabel="y label").

Alternatively, the index x-axis label is automatically set to the Index name, if it has one. so df2.index.name = 'x label' would work too.

Answer 2

You can use do it like this:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt 
import pandas as pd

plt.figure()
values = [[1, 2], [2, 5]]
df2 = pd.DataFrame(values, columns=['Type A', 'Type B'], 
                   index=['Index 1', 'Index 2'])
df2.plot(lw=2, colormap='jet', marker='.', markersize=10,
         title='Video streaming dropout by category')
plt.xlabel('xlabel')
plt.ylabel('ylabel')
plt.show()

Obviously you have to replace the strings 'xlabel' and 'ylabel' with what you want them to be.