How to Set Axis Range (xlim, ylim) in Matplotlib - Stack Abuse

# How to Set Axis Range (xlim, ylim) in Matplotlib

### Introduction

Matplotlib is one of the most widely used data visualization libraries in Python. Much of Matplotlib's popularity comes from its customization options - you can tweak just about any element from its hierarchy of objects.

In this tutorial, we'll take a look at how to set the axis range (xlim, ylim) in Matplotlib, to truncate or expand the view to specific limits.

### Creating a Plot

Let's first create a simple plot:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(12, 6))

x = np.arange(0, 10, 0.1)
y = np.sin(x)
z = np.cos(x)

ax.plot(y, color='blue', label='Sine wave')
ax.plot(z, color='black', label='Cosine wave')

plt.show()


Here, we've plotted two sine functions, starting at 0 and ending at 100 with a step of 0.1. Running this code yields:

Now, we can tweak the range of this axis, which currently goes from 0 to 100.

### Setting Axis Range in Matplotlib

Now, if we'd like to truncate that view, into a smaller one or even a larger one, we can tweak the X and Y limits. These can be accessed either through the PyPlot instance, or the Axes instance.

#### How to Set X-Limit (xlim) in Matplotlib

Let's first set the X-limit, using both the PyPlot and Axes instances. Both of these methods accept a tuple - the left and right limits. So, for example, if we wanted to truncate the view to only show the data in the range of 25-50 on the X-axis, we'd use xlim([25, 50]):

fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(12, 6))

x = np.arange(0, 10, 0.1)
y = np.sin(x)
z = np.cos(x)

ax.plot(y, color='blue', label='Sine wave')
ax.plot(z, color='black', label='Cosine wave')

plt.xlim([25, 50])
plt.show()


This limits the view on the X-axis to the data between 25 and 50 and results in:

This same effect can be achieved by setting these via the ax object. This way, if we have multiple Axes, we can set the limit for them separately:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(12, 6))

x = np.arange(0, 10, 0.1)
y = np.sin(x)
z = np.cos(x)

ax.set_title('Full view')
ax.plot(y, color='blue', label='Sine wave')
ax.plot(z, color='black', label='Cosine wave')

ax2.set_title('Truncated view')
ax2.plot(y, color='blue', label='Sine wave')
ax2.plot(z, color='black', label='Cosine wave')

ax2.set_xlim([25, 50])

plt.show()


#### How to Set Y-Limit (ylim) in Matplotlib

Now, let's set the Y-limit. This can be achieved with the same two approaches:

ax.plot(y, color='blue', label='Sine wave')
ax.plot(z, color='black', label='Cosine wave')

plt.ylim([-1, 0])


Or:

ax.plot(y, color='blue', label='Sine wave')
ax.plot(z, color='black', label='Cosine wave')

ax.set_ylim([-1, 0])


Both of which result in:

### Conclusion

In this tutorial, we've gone over how to set the axis range (i.e. the X and Y limits) using Matplotlib in Python.

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Last Updated: May 5th, 2021

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