How to add a legend to a matplotlib eventplot?

Question

Does anyone know how to add a legend to matplotlib's new plotting type, eventplot?

I have unsuccessfully tried many things including:

labels1 = ['red', 'green', 'blue', 'yellow', 'magenta', 'cyan']
ax2.eventplot(data1, colors=colors1, lineoffsets=lineoffsets1,
              linelengths=linelengths1, orientation='vertical', label=labels1)
ax2.legend()

These edits were made on the example code, eventplot_demo.py found at http://matplotlib.org/dev/api/pyplot_api.html#matplotlib.pyplot.eventplot

Answer 1

TL;DR

Just, ax.legend( list_of_names )

Explain

From you code,

labels1 = ['red', 'green', 'blue', 'yellow', 'magenta', 'cyan']
ax2.eventplot(data1, colors=colors1, lineoffsets=lineoffsets1,
              linelengths=linelengths1, orientation='vertical')
ax2.legend( labels1 )

For the example in matplotlib.pyplot.eventplot

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import matplotlib

# Fixing random state for reproducibility
np.random.seed(19680801)

# create random data
data = np.random.random([6, 50])

# set different colors for each set of positions
colors = np.array([[1, 0, 0],
                    [0, 1, 0],
                    [0, 0, 1],
                    [0, 0, 0],
                    [1, 0, 1],
                    [0, 1, 1]])
# label each set
labels = ['John','Mike','Bob','Sam','Alex','Eva']

fig, axs = plt.subplots(1,1)

# create a horizontal plot
axs.eventplot(data,color=colors)
# Just needed axs.legend(labels) the everything else is for the positioning
axs.legend(labels, bbox_to_anchor=(0., 1.0, 1., .10), loc=3,ncol=3, mode="expand", borderaxespad=0.)
plt.show()

Final result