matplotlib.axes.Axes.eventplot

Axes.eventplot(positions, orientation='horizontal', lineoffsets=1, linelengths=1, linewidths=None, colors=None, linestyles='solid', *, data=None, **kwargs)

Plot identical parallel lines at the given positions.

positions should be a 1D or 2D array-like object, with each row corresponding to a row or column of lines.

This type of plot is commonly used in neuroscience for representing neural events, where it is usually called a spike raster, dot raster, or raster plot.

However, it is useful in any situation where you wish to show the timing or position of multiple sets of discrete events, such as the arrival times of people to a business on each day of the month or the date of hurricanes each year of the last century.

Parameters:

positions : 1D or 2D array-like object

Each value is an event. If positions is a 2D array-like, each row corresponds to a row or a column of lines (depending on the orientation parameter).

orientation : {‘horizontal’, ‘vertical’}, optional

Controls the direction of the event collections:

• ‘horizontal’ : the lines are arranged horizontally in rows, and are vertical.
• ‘vertical’ : the lines are arranged vertically in columns, and are horizontal.

lineoffsets : scalar or sequence of scalars, optional, default: 1

The offset of the center of the lines from the origin, in the direction orthogonal to orientation.

linelengths : scalar or sequence of scalars, optional, default: 1

The total height of the lines (i.e. the lines stretches from lineoffset - linelength/2 to lineoffset + linelength/2).

linewidths : scalar, scalar sequence or None, optional, default: None

The line width(s) of the event lines, in points. If it is None, defaults to its rcParams setting.

colors : color, sequence of colors or None, optional, default: None

The color(s) of the event lines. If it is None, defaults to its rcParams setting.

linestyles : str or tuple or a sequence of such values, optional

Default is ‘solid’. Valid strings are [‘solid’, ‘dashed’, ‘dashdot’, ‘dotted’, ‘-‘, ‘–’, ‘-.’, ‘:’]. Dash tuples should be of the form:

(offset, onoffseq),

where onoffseq is an even length tuple of on and off ink in points.

**kwargs : optional

Other keyword arguments are line collection properties. See LineCollection for a list of the valid properties.

Returns:

A list of matplotlib.collections.EventCollection objects that

were added.

Notes

For linelengths, linewidths, colors, and linestyles, if only a single value is given, that value is applied to all lines. If an array-like is given, it must have the same length as positions, and each value will be applied to the corresponding row of the array.

Examples

(Source code, png, pdf)

Note

In addition to the above described arguments, this function can take a data keyword argument. If such a data argument is given, the following arguments are replaced by data[<arg>]:

• All arguments with the following names: ‘colors’, ‘linelengths’, ‘lineoffsets’, ‘linestyles’, ‘linewidths’, ‘positions’.