module 'matplotlib.pyplot' has no attribute 'tight_layout'

Question

For some reason the tight_layout() function from pyplot stopped working on machine. I've been using it in one of my programs for months and its decided to stop working out of the blue (I realize I probably made an accidental change somewhere that's caused this but I don't know where it would be). Any other matplotlib or pyplot function works a-okay, but whenever I call tight_layout I get

module 'matplotlib.pyplot' has no attribute 'tight_layout'

Which is obviously not true.

For example, even this code coming from the offical tight_layout guide (https://matplotlib.org/users/tight_layout_guide.html)

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt

plt.rcParams['savefig.facecolor'] = "0.8"

def example_plot(ax, fontsize=12):
     ax.plot([1, 2])
     ax.locator_params(nbins=3)
 ax.set_xlabel('x-label', fontsize=fontsize)
 ax.set_ylabel('y-label', fontsize=fontsize)
 ax.set_title('Title', fontsize=fontsize)

plt.close('all')
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
example_plot(ax, fontsize=24)
plt.tight_layout()

will produce the error.

I've reinstalled the matplotlib package a couple times and reinstalled my IDE (Spyder) to no avail. I'm pretty clueless at this point so any input would be great.

ImportanceOfBeingErnest · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-12 18:56:06Z

2

I don't think some module will suddenly loose its methods. You may check for the method being in the code,

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
with open(plt.__file__[:-1],"r") as f:
    for line in f:
        if "tight_layout" in line:
            print(line)

This should result in two lines being printed.

def tight_layout(pad=1.08, h_pad=None, w_pad=None, rect=None):
# and 
fig.tight_layout(pad=pad, h_pad=h_pad, w_pad=w_pad, rect=rect)

If this is not the case, check when the file was last changed

import os
from datetime import datetime

f = datetime.fromtimestamp(os.path.getmtime(plt.__file__[:-1]))
print("Modification time: {}".format(f))

and compare to any actions you took, installing, uninstalling, modifying code etc.

answered Feb 12, 2018 at 18:56

ImportanceOfBeingErnest

342k61 gold badges739 silver badges771 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

unutbu Over a year ago

Why [:-1]? On my machine this leads to No such file or directory...

ImportanceOfBeingErnest Over a year ago

@unutbu Interesting. So the code above works for me. module.__file__ would resolve the compiled python file .pyc, while in order to open the file and search it, one would rather use the .py source file. Also any change would rather occur in the text file, the compiled version would only mirror this.

Thomas Kühn Over a year ago

Maybe just check if the provided file name ends on .pyc and only then remove the last character?

Lucas Churchman Over a year ago

@ImportanceOfBeingErnest that did the trick! (I also had to remove the [:-1]. It printed

#def tight_layout(pad=1.08, h_pad=None, w_pad=None, rect=None):      fig.tight_layout(pad=pad, h_pad=h_pad, w_pad=w_pad, rect=rect)

When you click on a package function call in spyder it opens its source code. I must've misclicked it when I was rapidly commenting some of my code without noticing. Thanks!

Hoang 6494 · Accepted Answer · 2023-04-03 04:41:40Z

0

When you attempt to import Matplotlib and use tight_layout like a function, this error occurs. So you can fix your error by changing your import Matplotlib as plt to import Matplotlib.pyplot as plt.

answered Apr 3, 2023 at 4:41

Hoang 6494

1

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

module 'matplotlib.pyplot' has no attribute 'tight_layout'

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related