python matplotlib legend shows first entry of a list only

Question

I could not get all the legends to appear in matplotlib.

My Labels array is:

lab = ['Google', 'MSFT', 'APPL', 'EXXON', 'WMRT']

I use the below code to add the legend:

ax.legend(lab,loc="best")

Am seeing only 'Google' in top right corner. How to show all labels?

Full code:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from itertools import cycle, islice

menMeans = (8092, 812, 2221, 1000, 562)
N = len(menMeans)

lab = ['Google', 'MSFT', 'APPL', 'EXXON', 'WMRT']

ind = np.arange(N)  # the x locations for the groups
width = 0.35       # the width of the bars

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
my_colors = list(islice(cycle(['b', 'r', 'g', 'y', 'k']), None, N))
rects1 = ax.bar(ind, menMeans, width, color=my_colors,label=lab)

# add some
ax.set_ylabel('Count')
ax.set_title('Trending words and their counts')
ax.set_xticks(ind+width)
ax.legend(lab,loc="best")
plt.show()

Answer 1

The answer by @Ffisegydd may be more useful*, but it doesn't answer the question. Simply create separate bar charts for the legend, and you'll get the desired result:

for x,y,c,lb in zip(ind,menMeans,my_colors,lab):
    ax.bar(x, y, width, color=c,label=lb)

ax.legend()

* To see why this presentation may be harmful, consider what would happen if the viewer was colorblind (or this was printed in black and white).