How to plot multi-color line if x-axis is date time index of pandas

Question

I am trying to plot a multi-color line using pandas series. I know matplotlib.collections.LineCollection will sharply promote the efficiency. But LineCollection

Answer 1

ImportanceOfBeingErnest's is a very good answer and saved me many hours of work. I want to share how I used above answer to change color based on signal from a pandas DataFrame.

import matplotlib.dates as mdates
# import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# import numpy as np
# import pandas as pd
from matplotlib.collections import LineCollection
from matplotlib.colors import ListedColormap, BoundaryNorm

Make test DataFrame

equity = pd.DataFrame(index=pd.date_range('20150701', periods=150))
equity['price'] = np.random.uniform(low=15500, high=18500, size=(150,))
equity['signal'] = 0
equity.signal[15:45] = 1
equity.signal[60:90] = -1
equity.signal[105:135] = 1

# Create a colormap for crimson, limegreen and gray and a norm to color
# signal = -1 crimson, signal = 1 limegreen, and signal = 0 lightgray
cmap = ListedColormap(['crimson', 'lightgray', 'limegreen'])
norm = BoundaryNorm([-1.5, -0.5, 0.5, 1.5], cmap.N)

# Convert dates to numbers
inxval = mdates.date2num(equity.index.to_pydatetime())

# Create a set of line segments so that we can color them individually
# This creates the points as a N x 1 x 2 array so that we can stack points
# together easily to get the segments. The segments array for line collection
# needs to be numlines x points per line x 2 (x and y)
points = np.array([inxval, equity.price.values]).T.reshape(-1,1,2)
segments = np.concatenate([points[:-1],points[1:]], axis=1)

# Create the line collection object, setting the colormapping parameters.
# Have to set the actual values used for colormapping separately.
lc = LineCollection(segments, cmap=cmap, norm=norm, linewidth=2)

# Set color using signal values
lc.set_array(equity.signal.values)

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
fig.autofmt_xdate()

# Add collection to axes
ax.add_collection(lc)

plt.xlim(equity.index.min(), equity.index.max())
plt.ylim(equity.price.min(), equity.price.max())
plt.tight_layout()

# plt.savefig('test_mline.png', dpi=150)
plt.show()