Python Pylab scatter plot error bars (the error on each point is unique)

Question

I am attempting a scatter plot of 2 arrays for which I have a third array containing the absolute error (error in y direction) on each point. I want the error bars to between (point a - error on a) and (point a + error on a). Is there a way of achieving this with pylab and if not any ideas on how else I could do it?

Answer 1

This is almost like the other answer but you don't need a scatter plot at all, you can simply specify a scatter-plot-like format (fmt-parameter) for errorbar:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt x = [1, 2, 3, 4] y = [1, 4, 9, 16] e = [0.5, 1., 1.5, 2.] plt.errorbar(x, y, yerr=e, fmt='o') plt.show() 

Result:

A list of the avaiable fmt parameters can be found for example in the plot documentation:

character   description '-'     solid line style '--'    dashed line style '-.'    dash-dot line style ':'     dotted line style '.'     point marker ','     pixel marker 'o'     circle marker 'v'     triangle_down marker '^'     triangle_up marker '<'     triangle_left marker '>'     triangle_right marker '1'     tri_down marker '2'     tri_up marker '3'     tri_left marker '4'     tri_right marker 's'     square marker 'p'     pentagon marker '*'     star marker 'h'     hexagon1 marker 'H'     hexagon2 marker '+'     plus marker 'x'     x marker 'D'     diamond marker 'd'     thin_diamond marker '|'     vline marker '_'     hline marker