Matplotlib Bar Chart choose color if value is positive vs value is negative

Question

I have a pandas DataFrame with positive and negative values as a bar chart. I want to plot the positive colors \'green\' and the negative values \'red\' (very original...lol

Answer 1

I would create a dummy column for whether the observation is larger than 0.

In [39]: data['positive'] = data['values'] > 0

In [40]: data
Out[40]: 
   values positive
a   -15.0    False
b    10.0     True
c     8.0     True
d    -4.5    False

[4 rows x 2 columns]

In [41]: data['values'].plot(kind='barh',
                             color=data.positive.map({True: 'g', False: 'r'}))

Also, you may want to be careful not to have column names that overlap with DataFrame attributes. DataFrame.values give the underlying numpy array for a DataFrame. Having overlapping names prevents you from using the df. syntax.