How do I plot two pandas DataFrames in one graph with the same colors but different line styles?

Question

Suppose I have the following two dataframes:

df1 = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randn(100, 3),columns=['A','B','C']).cumsum()
df2 = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randn(100, 3),columns=['A','B','C']).cumsum()

My question is that, how can I plot them in one graph such that:

1. The three series of df1 and df2 are still in the same blue, orange and green lines as above.
2. The three series of df1 are in solid lines
3. The three series of df1 are in dashed lines

Currently the closest thing I can get is the following:

ax = df1.plot(style=['b','y','g'])
df2.plot(ax=ax, style=['b','y','g'], linestyle='--')

Is there any way to get the color codes used by default by DataFrame.plot()? Or is there any other better approach to achieve what I want? Ideally I don't want to specify any color codes with the style parameter but always use the default colors.

Answer 1

Without messing with the colors themselves or transferring them from one plot to the other you may easily just reset the colorcycle in between your plot commands

ax = df1.plot()
ax.set_prop_cycle(None)
df2.plot(ax=ax, linestyle="--")

Answer 2

You could use get_color from the lines:

df1 = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randn(100, 3),columns=['A','B','C']).cumsum()
df2 = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randn(100, 3),columns=['A','B','C']).cumsum()

ax = df1.plot()
l = ax.get_lines()
df2.plot(ax=ax, linestyle='--', color=(i.get_color() for i in l))

Output:

Answer 3

You can get the default color parameters that are currently being used from matplotlib.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
colors = list(plt.rcParams.get('axes.prop_cycle'))

[{'color': '#1f77b4'},
 {'color': '#ff7f0e'},
 {'color': '#2ca02c'},
 {'color': '#d62728'},
 {'color': '#9467bd'},
 {'color': '#8c564b'},
 {'color': '#e377c2'},
 {'color': '#7f7f7f'},
 {'color': '#bcbd22'},
 {'color': '#17becf'}]

so just pass style=['#1f77b4', '#ff7f0e', '#2ca02c'] and the colors should work.

If you want to set another color cycler, say the older version, then:

plt.rcParams['axes.prop_cycle'] = ("cycler('color', 'bgrcmyk')")
list(plt.rcParams['axes.prop_cycle'])
#[{'color': 'b'},
# {'color': 'g'},
# {'color': 'r'},
# {'color': 'c'},
# {'color': 'm'},
# {'color': 'y'},
# {'color': 'k'}]