How can I rotate a matplotlib plot through 90 degrees?

Question

I have created a figure in matplotlib which contains three subplots, one in the top left quadrant, one in the top right quadrant, and one in the bottom right quadrant. The t

Answer 1

Another interesting parameter for a lot of functions is transform (unlike orientation or pivot this parameter can also be used in e.g. plot).

The transform parameter allows you to add a transformation, specified by a Transform object. For the sake of example, this is how you would rotate the plot of some random data:

import numpy
from matplotlib import pyplot, transforms

data = numpy.random.randn(100)

# first of all, the base transformation of the data points is needed
base = pyplot.gca().transData
rot = transforms.Affine2D().rotate_deg(90)

# define transformed line
line = pyplot.plot(data, 'r--', transform= rot + base)
# or alternatively, use:
# line.set_transform(rot + base)

pyplot.show()

For an example on how to rotate a patch, see this answer, which was also the source of inspiration for this answer.

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update

I recently found out that the transform parameter does not work as expected when using pyplot.scatter (and other PathCollections). In this case, you might want to use the offset_transform. See this answer for more information on how to the offset_transform can be set.