Controlling Matplotlib Tick Labels with Unicode

Introduction

In this lab, we will learn how to control the tick labels in a Matplotlib plot using Unicode minus and ASCII hyphen. By default, tick labels at negative values are rendered using a Unicode minus rather than an ASCII hyphen. However, this can be controlled by setting axes.unicode_minus. We will use a sample code snippet to showcase the difference between the two glyphs in a magnified font.

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Skills Graph

%%%%{init: {'theme':'neutral'}}%%%% flowchart RL matplotlib(("`Matplotlib`")) -.-> matplotlib/BasicConceptsGroup(["`Basic Concepts`"]) matplotlib(("`Matplotlib`")) -.-> matplotlib/PlottingDataGroup(["`Plotting Data`"]) matplotlib(("`Matplotlib`")) -.-> matplotlib/AdvancedTopicsGroup(["`Advanced Topics`"]) python(("`Python`")) -.-> python/BasicConceptsGroup(["`Basic Concepts`"]) python(("`Python`")) -.-> python/DataStructuresGroup(["`Data Structures`"]) python(("`Python`")) -.-> python/ModulesandPackagesGroup(["`Modules and Packages`"]) python(("`Python`")) -.-> python/DataScienceandMachineLearningGroup(["`Data Science and Machine Learning`"]) matplotlib/BasicConceptsGroup -.-> matplotlib/importing_matplotlib("`Importing Matplotlib`") matplotlib/BasicConceptsGroup -.-> matplotlib/figures_axes("`Understanding Figures and Axes`") matplotlib/PlottingDataGroup -.-> matplotlib/line_plots("`Line Plots`") matplotlib/AdvancedTopicsGroup -.-> matplotlib/matplotlib_config("`Customizing Matplotlib Configurations`") python/BasicConceptsGroup -.-> python/booleans("`Booleans`") python/DataStructuresGroup -.-> python/lists("`Lists`") python/DataStructuresGroup -.-> python/tuples("`Tuples`") python/ModulesandPackagesGroup -.-> python/importing_modules("`Importing Modules`") python/DataScienceandMachineLearningGroup -.-> python/numerical_computing("`Numerical Computing`") python/DataScienceandMachineLearningGroup -.-> python/data_visualization("`Data Visualization`") subgraph Lab Skills matplotlib/importing_matplotlib -.-> lab-49016{{"`Controlling Matplotlib Tick Labels with Unicode`"}} matplotlib/figures_axes -.-> lab-49016{{"`Controlling Matplotlib Tick Labels with Unicode`"}} matplotlib/line_plots -.-> lab-49016{{"`Controlling Matplotlib Tick Labels with Unicode`"}} matplotlib/matplotlib_config -.-> lab-49016{{"`Controlling Matplotlib Tick Labels with Unicode`"}} python/booleans -.-> lab-49016{{"`Controlling Matplotlib Tick Labels with Unicode`"}} python/lists -.-> lab-49016{{"`Controlling Matplotlib Tick Labels with Unicode`"}} python/tuples -.-> lab-49016{{"`Controlling Matplotlib Tick Labels with Unicode`"}} python/importing_modules -.-> lab-49016{{"`Controlling Matplotlib Tick Labels with Unicode`"}} python/numerical_computing -.-> lab-49016{{"`Controlling Matplotlib Tick Labels with Unicode`"}} python/data_visualization -.-> lab-49016{{"`Controlling Matplotlib Tick Labels with Unicode`"}} end

Importing the Required Libraries

We will start by importing the required libraries matplotlib.pyplot and numpy.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

Setting up the Data

Next, we will create some sample data to plot using the numpy library. We will create a linearly spaced array of 100 values between 0 and 10.

x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)

Plotting the Data

Now, we will plot the data using the plot function of Matplotlib. We will plot a sine wave with a frequency of 1 and amplitude of 1.

y = np.sin(x)
plt.plot(x, y)

Setting the Tick Labels

By default, tick labels at negative values are rendered using a Unicode minus rather than an ASCII hyphen. However, we can change this behavior by setting axes.unicode_minus to False.

plt.rcParams['axes.unicode_minus'] = False

Displaying the Plot

Finally, we will display the plot using the show function of Matplotlib.

plt.show()

Summary

In this lab, we learned how to control the tick labels in a Matplotlib plot using Unicode minus and ASCII hyphen. We used a sample code snippet to showcase the difference between the two glyphs in a magnified font. By setting axes.unicode_minus to False, we can change the default behavior of rendering tick labels at negative values using a Unicode minus.