Plotting Pandas Multiindex Bar Chart

Question

How can I plot a Python Pandas multiindex dataframe as a bar chart with group labels? Do any of the plotting libraries directly support this? This SO post shows a custom solution using matplotlib, but is there direct support for it?

As an example:

quarter  company Q1       Blue       100          Green      300 Q2       Blue       200          Green      350 Q3       Blue       300          Green      400 Q4       Blue       400          Green      450 Name: count, dtype: int64 

...can this dataframe be plotted with group labels like this?

Thanks in advance,

Rafi

Answer 1

import pandas as pd  data = pd.DataFrame([         ('Q1','Blue',100),         ('Q1','Green',300),         ('Q2','Blue',200),         ('Q2','Green',350),         ('Q3','Blue',300),         ('Q3','Green',400),         ('Q4','Blue',400),         ('Q4','Green',450),     ],      columns=['quarter', 'company', 'value'] ) data = data.set_index(['quarter', 'company']).value  data.unstack().plot(kind='bar', stacked=True) 

If you don't want to stack your bar chart:

data.unstack().plot(kind='bar')