How to plot a dataframe using date as the x axis

Question

I have a simple dataframe with two columns, 'date' and 'amount'. I want to plot the amount using date as the x-axis. The first lines of the data are:

22/05/2018,52068.67
21/05/2018,52159.19
15/05/2018,52744.03
08/05/2018,54666.21
08/05/2018,54677.51
01/05/2018,53890.59
30/04/2018,54812.25
27/04/2018,52258.23
26/04/2018,52351.47
23/04/2018,49777.04
23/04/2018,49952.44
23/04/2018,49992.44
05/04/2018,53238.59
03/04/2018,53631.09
03/04/2018,53839.64
28/03/2018,50836.78
26/03/2018,51206.67
26/03/2018,51372.02
14/03/2018,51110.17
12/03/2018,51411.31
06/03/2018,51169.91
05/03/2018,51374.57
27/02/2018,48728.85
27/02/2018,48730.5
16/02/2018,44988.25
14/02/2018,41948.03
12/02/2018,43776.31
12/02/2018,43800.31
12/02/2018,43840.11
05/02/2018,29358.96
26/01/2018,39491.0
24/01/2018,36470.03
23/01/2018,36562.76
23/01/2018,36616.61
22/01/2018,36582.46
22/01/2018,36665.71
22/01/2018,36743.31
17/01/2018,36965.3
16/01/2018,37044.6
09/01/2018,42083.65
08/01/2018,42183.39
05/01/2018,42285.41
03/01/2018,41537.51
03/01/2018,41579.51
02/01/2018,41945.32
27/12/2017,43003.33
27/12/2017,43217.29
18/12/2017,38208.63
15/12/2017,38315.53

However, the plot gives me points that don't appear in the data. For example, in May 2018 there is no value near 30000.

My code is:

import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

df = pd.read_csv("test.csv", header=None, names =['date', 'amount'])
df['time'] = pd.to_datetime(df['date'])
df.set_index(['time'],inplace=True)
df['amount'].plot()
plt.show()

What am I doing wrong?

@A.Kot The x-axis in the plot is sorted by date (see the figure in the question) so hasn't that already been done by pandas? — Simd
– Simd, Commented May 23, 2018 at 19:20
Shame that pd.to_datetime("05/02/2018") returns Timestamp('2018-05-02 00:00:00'). — Bill
– Bill, Commented May 23, 2018 at 19:38
You can also use the "dayfirst" option: df['time'] = pd.to_datetime(df['date'], dayfirst=True) — screenpaver
– screenpaver, Commented May 23, 2018 at 19:41

Vaishali · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-23 19:27:56Z

5

You need to covert the dates to date time using correct format and use pandas plot

df['date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['date'], format = '%d/%m/%Y')
df.plot('date', 'amount')

answered May 23, 2018 at 19:27

Vaishali

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3 Comments

Bill Over a year ago

Nice work. That explains it. 29 05/02/2018 29358.96 never understood why the US decided to reverse day/month in dates when all other countries use dd/mm/yyyy....

Vaishali Over a year ago

@Bill, yeah the date format does throw you off in the beginning but as is with any topic in programming, your mind gets trained to look for those problem areas

Bill Over a year ago

@Parfait You don't even speak English! (colour, behaviour, programme, ...). But we're getting off topic.

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