How to plot multiple horizontal bars in one chart with matplotlib

Question

Can you help me figure out how to draw this kind of plot with matplotlib?

I have a pandas data frame object representing the table:

Graph       n            


        

Answer 1

The question and answers are a bit old now. Based on the documentation this is much simpler now.

>>> speed = [0.1, 17.5, 40, 48, 52, 69, 88]
>>> lifespan = [2, 8, 70, 1.5, 25, 12, 28]
>>> index = ['snail', 'pig', 'elephant',
...          'rabbit', 'giraffe', 'coyote', 'horse']
>>> df = pd.DataFrame({'speed': speed,
...                    'lifespan': lifespan}, index=index)
>>> ax = df.plot.barh()

Answer 2

It sounds like you want something very similar to this example: http://matplotlib.org/examples/api/barchart_demo.html

As a start:

import pandas
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

df = pandas.DataFrame(dict(graph=['Item one', 'Item two', 'Item three'],
                           n=[3, 5, 2], m=[6, 1, 3])) 

ind = np.arange(len(df))
width = 0.4

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.barh(ind, df.n, width, color='red', label='N')
ax.barh(ind + width, df.m, width, color='green', label='M')

ax.set(yticks=ind + width, yticklabels=df.graph, ylim=[2*width - 1, len(df)])
ax.legend()

plt.show()