Embedding small plots inside subplots in matplotlib

Question

If you want to insert a small plot inside a bigger one you can use Axes, like here.

The problem is that I don't know how to do the same inside a subplot.

I have several subplots and I would like to plot a small plot inside each subplot. The example code would be something like this:

import numpy as np import matplotlib.pyplot as plt  fig = plt.figure()  for i in range(4):     ax = fig.add_subplot(2,2,i)     ax.plot(np.arange(11),np.arange(11),'b')      #b = ax.axes([0.7,0.7,0.2,0.2])      #it gives an error, AxesSubplot is not callable      #b = plt.axes([0.7,0.7,0.2,0.2])     #plt.plot(np.arange(3),np.arange(3)+11,'g')     #it plots the small plot in the selected position of the whole figure, not inside the subplot 

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I wrote a function very similar to plt.axes. You could use it for plotting yours sub-subplots. There is an example...

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt import numpy as np  #def add_subplot_axes(ax,rect,facecolor='w'): # matplotlib 2.0+ def add_subplot_axes(ax,rect,axisbg='w'):     fig = plt.gcf()     box = ax.get_position()     width = box.width     height = box.height     inax_position  = ax.transAxes.transform(rect[0:2])     transFigure = fig.transFigure.inverted()     infig_position = transFigure.transform(inax_position)         x = infig_position[0]     y = infig_position[1]     width *= rect[2]     height *= rect[3]  # <= Typo was here     #subax = fig.add_axes([x,y,width,height],facecolor=facecolor)  # matplotlib 2.0+     subax = fig.add_axes([x,y,width,height],axisbg=axisbg)     x_labelsize = subax.get_xticklabels()[0].get_size()     y_labelsize = subax.get_yticklabels()[0].get_size()     x_labelsize *= rect[2]**0.5     y_labelsize *= rect[3]**0.5     subax.xaxis.set_tick_params(labelsize=x_labelsize)     subax.yaxis.set_tick_params(labelsize=y_labelsize)     return subax      def example1():     fig = plt.figure(figsize=(10,10))     ax = fig.add_subplot(111)     rect = [0.2,0.2,0.7,0.7]     ax1 = add_subplot_axes(ax,rect)     ax2 = add_subplot_axes(ax1,rect)     ax3 = add_subplot_axes(ax2,rect)     plt.show()  def example2():     fig = plt.figure(figsize=(10,10))     axes = []     subpos = [0.2,0.6,0.3,0.3]     x = np.linspace(-np.pi,np.pi)     for i in range(4):         axes.append(fig.add_subplot(2,2,i))     for axis in axes:         axis.set_xlim(-np.pi,np.pi)         axis.set_ylim(-1,3)         axis.plot(x,np.sin(x))         subax1 = add_subplot_axes(axis,subpos)         subax2 = add_subplot_axes(subax1,subpos)         subax1.plot(x,np.sin(x))         subax2.plot(x,np.sin(x)) if __name__ == '__main__':     example2()     plt.show()