matplotlib.pyplot.subplot

matplotlib.pyplot.subplot(*args, **kwargs)[source]

Add a subplot to the current figure.

Wrapper of Figure.add_subplot with a difference in behavior explained in the notes section.

Call signatures:

subplot(nrows, ncols, index, **kwargs)
subplot(pos, **kwargs)
subplot(**kwargs)
subplot(ax)
Parameters:
*argsint, (int, int, index), or SubplotSpec, default: (1, 1, 1)

The position of the subplot described by one of

  • Three integers (nrows, ncols, index). The subplot will take the index position on a grid with nrows rows and ncols columns. index starts at 1 in the upper left corner and increases to the right. index can also be a two-tuple specifying the (first, last) indices (1-based, and including last) of the subplot, e.g., fig.add_subplot(3, 1, (1, 2)) makes a subplot that spans the upper 2/3 of the figure.
  • A 3-digit integer. The digits are interpreted as if given separately as three single-digit integers, i.e. fig.add_subplot(235) is the same as fig.add_subplot(2, 3, 5). Note that this can only be used if there are no more than 9 subplots.
  • A SubplotSpec.
projection{None, 'aitoff', 'hammer', 'lambert', 'mollweide', 'polar', 'rectilinear', str}, optional

The projection type of the subplot (Axes). str is the name of a custom projection, see projections. The default None results in a 'rectilinear' projection.

polarbool, default: False

If True, equivalent to projection='polar'.

sharex, shareyAxes, optional

Share the x or y axis with sharex and/or sharey. The axis will have the same limits, ticks, and scale as the axis of the shared axes.

labelstr

A label for the returned axes.
Returns:
axes.SubplotBase, or another subclass of Axes

The axes of the subplot. The returned axes base class depends on the projection used. It is Axes if rectilinear projection is used and projections.polar.PolarAxes if polar projection is used. The returned axes is then a subplot subclass of the base class.
Other Parameters:
**kwargs

This method also takes the keyword arguments for the returned axes base class; except for the figure argument. The keyword arguments for the rectilinear base class Axes can be found in the following table but there might also be other keyword arguments if another projection is used.

Property Description
adjustable {'box', 'datalim'}
agg_filter a filter function, which takes a (m, n, 3) float array and a dpi value, and returns a (m, n, 3) array
alpha float or None
anchor 2-tuple of floats or {'C', 'SW', 'S', 'SE', ...}
animated bool
aspect {'auto'} or num
autoscale_on bool
autoscalex_on bool
autoscaley_on bool
axes_locator Callable[[Axes, Renderer], Bbox]
axisbelow bool or 'line'
box_aspect None, or a number
clip_box Bbox
clip_on bool
clip_path Patch or (Path, Transform) or None
contains unknown
facecolor or fc color
figure Figure
frame_on bool
gid str
in_layout bool
label object
navigate bool
navigate_mode unknown
path_effects AbstractPathEffect
picker None or bool or callable
position [left, bottom, width, height] or Bbox
prop_cycle unknown
rasterization_zorder float or None
rasterized bool or None
sketch_params (scale: float, length: float, randomness: float)
snap bool or None
title str
transform Transform
url str
visible bool
xbound unknown
xlabel str
xlim (bottom: float, top: float)
xmargin float greater than -0.5
xscale {"linear", "log", "symlog", "logit", ...}
xticklabels unknown
xticks unknown
ybound unknown
ylabel str
ylim (bottom: float, top: float)
ymargin float greater than -0.5
yscale {"linear", "log", "symlog", "logit", ...}
yticklabels unknown
yticks unknown
zorder float

See also

Figure.add_subplot
pyplot.subplots
pyplot.axes
Figure.subplots

Notes

Creating a subplot will delete any pre-existing subplot that overlaps with it beyond sharing a boundary:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# plot a line, implicitly creating a subplot(111)
plt.plot([1, 2, 3])
# now create a subplot which represents the top plot of a grid
# with 2 rows and 1 column. Since this subplot will overlap the
# first, the plot (and its axes) previously created, will be removed
plt.subplot(211)

If you do not want this behavior, use the Figure.add_subplot method or the pyplot.axes function instead.

If the figure already has a subplot with key (args, kwargs) then it will simply make that subplot current and return it. This behavior is deprecated. Meanwhile, if you do not want this behavior (i.e., you want to force the creation of a new subplot), you must use a unique set of args and kwargs. The axes label attribute has been exposed for this purpose: if you want two subplots that are otherwise identical to be added to the figure, make sure you give them unique labels.

In rare circumstances, add_subplot may be called with a single argument, a subplot axes instance already created in the present figure but not in the figure's list of axes.

Examples

plt.subplot(221)

# equivalent but more general
ax1=plt.subplot(2, 2, 1)

# add a subplot with no frame
ax2=plt.subplot(222, frameon=False)

# add a polar subplot
plt.subplot(223, projection='polar')

# add a red subplot that shares the x-axis with ax1
plt.subplot(224, sharex=ax1, facecolor='red')

# delete ax2 from the figure
plt.delaxes(ax2)

# add ax2 to the figure again
plt.subplot(ax2)