Overview

Teaching: 60 min
Exercises: 30 min

Questions

• Why to use Matplotlib for HEP?

• What kind of plots can be done?

Objectives

• Understand the basics of Matplotlib

• Learn how to manipulate the elements of a plot

The example-based nature of Matplotlib documentation is GREAT.

Matplotlib is the standard when it comes to making plots in Python. It is versatile and allows for lots of functionality and different ways to produce many plots. We will be focusing on using matplotlib for High Energy Physics.

A simple example

As with any Python code it is always good practice to import the necessary libraries as a first step.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

Key Points

• Matplotlib graphs data in Figures, each of which can contain components that can be manipulated: axis, legend, labels, etc.

• Many kinds of plots can be produced: scatter plots, bar plots, pie charts, and many more