How to avoid overlapping of labels & autopct in a matplotlib pie chart?

Question

My Python code is:

values = [234, 64, 54,10, 0, 1, 0, 9, 2, 1, 7, 7] months = ['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun',           'Jul','Aug','Sep','Oct', 'Nov','Dec']  colors = ['yellowgreen', 'red', 'gold', 'lightskyblue',            'white','lightcoral','blue','pink', 'darkgreen',            'yellow','grey','violet','magenta','cyan']  plt.pie(values, labels=labels, autopct='%1.1f%%', shadow=True,          colors=colors, startangle=90, radius=1.2)  plt.show() 

Is it possible to show the labels "Jan", "Feb", "Mar", etc. and the percentages, either:

• without overlapping, or
• using an arrow mark?

Answer 1

Alternatively you can put the legends beside the pie graph:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt import numpy as np  x = np.char.array(['Jan','Feb','Mar','Apr','May','Jun','Jul','Aug','Sep','Oct', 'Nov','Dec']) y = np.array([234, 64, 54,10, 0, 1, 0, 9, 2, 1, 7, 7]) colors = ['yellowgreen','red','gold','lightskyblue','white','lightcoral','blue','pink', 'darkgreen','yellow','grey','violet','magenta','cyan'] porcent = 100.*y/y.sum()  patches, texts = plt.pie(y, colors=colors, startangle=90, radius=1.2) labels = ['{0} - {1:1.2f} %'.format(i,j) for i,j in zip(x, porcent)]  sort_legend = True if sort_legend:     patches, labels, dummy =  zip(*sorted(zip(patches, labels, y),                                           key=lambda x: x[2],                                           reverse=True))  plt.legend(patches, labels, loc='left center', bbox_to_anchor=(-0.1, 1.),            fontsize=8)  plt.savefig('piechart.png', bbox_inches='tight') 

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EDIT: if you want to keep the legend in the original order, as you mentioned in the comments, you can set sort_legend=False in the code above, giving:

Answer 2

First of all; avoid pie charts whenever you can!

Secondly, have a think about how objects work in python. I believe this example should be self-explaining, however, you obviously don't need to move labels manually.

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt  fig, ax = plt.subplots() ax.axis('equal')  patches, texts, autotexts = ax.pie([12,6,2,3],                                labels=['A', 'B', 'C', 'no data'],                               autopct='%1.1f%%',                                pctdistance=0.5,                                labeldistance=1.1)    # Move a label texts[1]._x =-0.5 texts[1]._y =+0.5  # E.g. change some formatting texts[-1]._color = 'blue' 

There are some options to modify the labels:

# Check all options print(texts[0].__dict__) 

returns

{'_stale': False,  'stale_callback': <function matplotlib.artist._stale_axes_callback(self, val)>,  '_axes': <AxesSubplot:>,  'figure': <Figure size 432x288 with 1 Axes>,  '_transform': <matplotlib.transforms.CompositeGenericTransform at 0x7fe09bedf210>,  '_transformSet': True,  '_visible': True,  '_animated': False,  '_alpha': None,  'clipbox': <matplotlib.transforms.TransformedBbox at 0x7fe065d3dd50>,  '_clippath': None,  '_clipon': False,  '_label': '',  '_picker': None,  '_contains': None,  '_rasterized': None,  '_agg_filter': None,  '_mouseover': False,  'eventson': False,  '_oid': 0,  '_propobservers': {},  '_remove_method': <function list.remove(value, /)>,  '_url': None,  '_gid': None,  '_snap': None,  '_sketch': None,  '_path_effects': [],  '_sticky_edges': _XYPair(x=[], y=[]),  '_in_layout': True,  '_x': -0.07506663683168735,  '_y': 1.097435647331897,  '_text': 'A',  '_color': 'black',  '_fontproperties': <matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties at 0x7fe065d3db90>,  '_usetex': False,  '_wrap': False,  '_verticalalignment': 'center',  '_horizontalalignment': 'right',  '_multialignment': None,  '_rotation': 'horizontal',  '_bbox_patch': None,  '_renderer': <matplotlib.backends.backend_agg.RendererAgg at 0x7fe08b01fd90>,  '_linespacing': 1.2,  '_rotation_mode': None}