How to automatically size a matplotlib plot to fit the x axis labels

Question

The data plots OK, but the rotated labels on the x axis are clipped. How do I open the plot such that everything fits?

def plot(data):
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    # Uh oh. Our data is not what this logic expects. We need to break it into 2 lists
    
    plt.style.use('ggplot')

    breeds = [x[0] for x in data]
    totals = [x[1] for x in data]

    # 
    x_pos = [i for i, _ in enumerate(data)]   # Figure out where the bars will go

    plt.bar(x_pos, totals, color='green')
    plt.xlabel("Breed")
    plt.ylabel("Total Cows")
    plt.title("Total Cows by Breed")
    
    # We need to rotate the x axis labels to vertical because they are too long and they overlap
    plt.xticks(rotation = 90)
    plt.xticks(x_pos, breeds)  # x_pos matches one-to-one with breeds
    
    plt.show()
    
if __name__ == '__main__':
    data = [["brown",100],["White",200], ["Zebra",4000], ["Unknown", 4500]]
    plot(data)

Save the figure as .svg and add bbox_inches='tight': plt.savefig(filename + ".svg", bbox_inches='tight') — CLRW97
– CLRW97, Commented Dec 17, 2021 at 14:53

eshirvana · Accepted Answer · 2023-09-26 23:00:09Z

5

you can use tight layout :

    ...
    plt.tight_layout()
    plt.show()

edited Sep 26, 2023 at 23:00

answered Dec 17, 2021 at 15:01

eshirvana

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