How to have a function return a figure in python (using matplotlib)?

Question

Assume that I have some data, and I want to create a plot of this data by passing it to a custom plotting function (myplot()). I am using the matplotlib's modules in myplot().

I would like myplot() to return the handle to a figure, and not plot display the plot when I call this function. Here is a sample code and output from iPython.

I have two questions regarding this:

1. Why do I still see a plot, even though I am assigning the output of myplot() to f?
2. What do I need to supress this plot when I am assigning the output of myplot() to a variable?

Answer 1

Start ipython with

ipython notebook

rather than

ipython notebook --pylab=inline