Pandas Series: plot.area() function

Last update on September 15 2022 12:54:45 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Series-plot.area() function

The plot.area() function is used to draw a stacked area plot.
An area plot displays quantitative data visually. This function wraps the matplotlib area function.

Syntax:

Series.plot.area(self, x=None, y=None, **kwargs)

Parameters:

Name	Description	Type/Default Value	Required / Optional
x	Coordinates for the X axis. By default uses the index.	label or position	Optional
y	Column to plot. By default uses all columns.	label or position	Optional
stacked	Area plots are stacked by default. Set to False to create a unstacked plot.	bool, default True	Optional
**kwds	Additional keyword arguments are documented in DataFrame.plot().		Optional

Returns: matplotlib.axes.Axes or numpy.ndarray
Area plot, or array of area plots if subplots is True.

Example - Draw an area plot based on basic business metrics:

Python-Pandas Code:

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'sales': [4, 2, 4, 9, 8, 6],
    'signups': [4, 4, 6, 10, 12, 14],
    'visits': [20, 42, 30, 60, 70, 50],
}, index=pd.date_range(start='2019/01/01', end='2019/07/01',
                       freq='M'))
ax = df.plot.area()

Output:

Example - Area plots are stacked by default. To produce an unstacked plot, pass stacked=False:

Python-Pandas Code:

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'sales': [4, 2, 4, 9, 8, 6],
    'signups': [4, 4, 6, 10, 12, 14],
    'visits': [20, 42, 30, 60, 70, 50],
}, index=pd.date_range(start='2019/01/01', end='2019/07/01',
                       freq='M'))
ax = df.plot.area(stacked=False)

Output:

Example - Draw an area plot for a single column:

Python-Pandas Code:

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'sales': [4, 2, 4, 9, 8, 6],
    'signups': [4, 4, 6, 10, 12, 14],
    'visits': [20, 42, 30, 60, 70, 50],
}, index=pd.date_range(start='2019/01/01', end='2019/07/01',
                       freq='M'))
ax = df.plot.area(y='sales')

Output:

Example - Draw with a different x:

Python-Pandas Code:

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'sales': [4, 2, 4],
    'visits': [20, 42, 30],
    'day': [1, 2, 3],
})
ax = df.plot.area(x='day')

Output:

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