Colormap for errorbars in x-y scatter plot using matplotlib

Question

I have a time series of data for which I have the quantity, y, and its error, yerr. I would now like to create a plot that shows y against phase (i.e. time / period % 1) wit

Answer 1

In addition to changing the color, another suggestion is to change the zorder of the error bars versus the scatter plot. This focuses the user on the data and draws out the general shape of the errors (which I think is your intention).

from pylab import *

# Generate some random data that looks like yours
N = 1000
X = random(N)
Y = sin(X*5) + X*random(N)*.8
Z = random(N)
ERR = X*random(N)

# These are the new arguments that I used
scatter_kwargs = {"zorder":100}
error_kwargs = {"lw":.5, "zorder":0}

scatter(X,Y,c=Z,**scatter_kwargs)
errorbar(X,Y,yerr=ERR,fmt=None, marker=None, mew=0,**error_kwargs )
xlim(0,1)
show()