matplotlib bar chart: space out bars

Question

How do I increase the space between each bar with matplotlib barcharts, as they keep cramming them self to the centre. (this is what it currently looks)

impo         


        

Answer 1

There are 2 ways to increase the space between the bars For reference here is the plot functions

plt.bar(x, height, width=0.8, bottom=None, *, align='center', data=None, **kwargs)

Decrease the width of the bar

The plot function has a width parameter that controls the width of the bar. If you decrease the width the space between the bars will automatically reduce. Width for you is set to 0.8 by default.

width = 0.5

Scale the x-axis so the bars are placed further apart from each other

If you want to keep the width constant you will have to space out where the bars are placed on x-axis. You can use any scaling parameter. For example

x = (range(len(my_dict)))
new_x = [2*i for i in x]

# you might have to increase the size of the figure
plt.figure(figsize=(20, 3))  # width:10, height:8

plt.bar(new_x, my_dict.values(), align='center', width=0.8)