Having line color vary with data index for line graph in matplotlib?

Question

So I have a 2D array of data producing a plot of many timeseries on the same axes. At the moment, the colour of each line just cycles through and doesn\'t mean anything.

Answer 1

if someone is still looking for a way to color the curve along the path using some colormap, without using a scatter, I think the better way is to split it to segments and call colormap for the color

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

def plot_colored(x, y, c, cmap=plt.cm.jet, steps=10):
    c = np.asarray(c)
    c -= c.min()
    c /= c.max()
    it=0
    while it<с.size-steps:
        x_segm = x[it:it+steps+1]
        y_segm = y[it:it+steps+1]
        c_segm = cmap( c[it+steps//2] )
        plt.plot(x_segm, y_segm, c=c_segm)
        it += steps

# sample track
t = np.r_[0:10:1000j]
x = t**.25*np.sin(2*np.pi*t)
y = t**.25*np.cos(2*np.pi*t)

plt.figure()
plot_colored(x, y, t)

(smaller step makes it smoother but slower)