Update Single Bar in Matplotlib

Question

I am plotting a bar graph using matplotlib and according to a condition in my code I need to change the color of one of the bar. Is it possible to change the color of a single bar in the plot without plotting a new bar graph, because that would increase the complexity ?

Related: how to change the color of a single bar if condition is True matplotlib

another related question: stackoverflow.com/questions/18903750/… — FObersteiner
– FObersteiner, Commented Dec 15, 2019 at 20:21
It does not specify what I asked for ? I have already plotted the graph and want to change the color of one bar. (Plotting the graph again with updated colors will be quite complex) — kunal
– kunal, Commented Dec 15, 2019 at 20:32

William Miller · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-15 20:49:22Z

3

matplotlib.pyplot.bar returns a matplotlib.container.BarContainer, in which the individual bars are stored as matplotlib.patches.Rectangle objects. Given that

The container can be treated as a tuple of the patches themselves. Additionally, you can access these and further parameters by the attributes

You can extract the patch for the specific bar or bars you want and change its color. An example:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x = np.linspace(0, 10, 5)
bars = plt.bar(x, x)
bars[2].set_color('orange')
plt.show()

edited Dec 15, 2019 at 20:49

answered Dec 15, 2019 at 20:42

William Miller

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3 Comments

ImportanceOfBeingErnest Over a year ago

I edited the code to make it consistent with the text you wrote.

kunal Over a year ago

Thanks, that was the solution I was looking for.

William Miller Over a year ago

@kunal I’m glad this solution worked for you. Be sure to accept this answer so the question is marked as such for future users.

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