pandas.DataFrame.plot.line

DataFrame.plot.line(x=None, y=None, **kwds)[source]

Plot DataFrame columns as lines.

This function is useful to plot lines using DataFrame’s values as coordinates.

Parameters:
x : int or str, optional

Columns to use for the horizontal axis. Either the location or the label of the columns to be used. By default, it will use the DataFrame indices.

y : int, str, or list of them, optional

The values to be plotted. Either the location or the label of the columns to be used. By default, it will use the remaining DataFrame numeric columns.

**kwds

Keyword arguments to pass on to pandas.DataFrame.plot().

Returns:
axes : matplotlib.axes.Axes or numpy.ndarray

Returns an ndarray when subplots=True.

See also

matplotlib.pyplot.plot
Plot y versus x as lines and/or markers.

Examples

The following example shows the populations for some animals over the years.

>>> df = pd.DataFrame({
...    'pig': [20, 18, 489, 675, 1776],
...    'horse': [4, 25, 281, 600, 1900]
...    }, index=[1990, 1997, 2003, 2009, 2014])
>>> lines = df.plot.line()
../../_images/pandas-DataFrame-plot-line-1.png

An example with subplots, so an array of axes is returned.

>>> axes = df.plot.line(subplots=True)
>>> type(axes)
<class 'numpy.ndarray'>
../../_images/pandas-DataFrame-plot-line-2.png

The following example shows the relationship between both populations.

>>> lines = df.plot.line(x='pig', y='horse')
../../_images/pandas-DataFrame-plot-line-3.png
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