DataCamp中Intermediate Python之Matplotlib01

Matplotlib先讲了如何做图，再讲如何定制图表。
这部分是是第一部分：如何做折线图、散点图和直方图。

Line plot (1)折线图

With matplotlib, you can create a bunch of different plots in Python. The most basic plot is the line plot. A general recipe is given here.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.plot(x,y)
plt.show()

In the video, you already saw how much the world population has grown over the past years. Will it continue to do so? The world bank has estimates of the world population for the years 1950 up to 2100. The years are loaded in your workspace as a list called year, and the corresponding populations as a list called pop.

This course touches on a lot of concepts you may have forgotten, so if you ever need a quick refresher, download the Python for data science Cheat Sheet and keep it handy!

Instructions

print() the last item from both the year and the pop list to see what the predicted population for the year 2100 is. Use two print() functions.
Before you can start, you should import matplotlib.pyplot as plt. pyplot is a sub-package of matplotlib, hence the dot.
Use plt.plot() to build a line plot. year should be mapped on the horizontal axis, pop on the vertical axis. Don’t forget to finish off with the show() function to actually display the plot.

Exercise

# Print the last item from year and pop

print(year[-1])
print(pop[-1])

# Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt 

# Make a line plot: year on the x-axis, pop on the y-axis
plt.plot(year,pop)

# Display the plot with plt.show()
plt.show()

Line Plot (2): Interpretation

Have another look at the plot you created in the previous exercise; it’s shown on the right. Based on the plot, in approximately what year will there be more than ten billion human beings on this planet?

Instructions

Line plot (3)

Now that you’ve built your first line plot, let’s start working on the data that professor Hans Rosling used to build his beautiful bubble chart. It was collected in 2007. Two lists are available for you:

• life_exp which contains the life expectancy for each country and
• gdp_cap, which contains the GDP per capita (i.e. per person) for each country expressed in US Dollars.

GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product. It basically represents the size of the economy of a country. Divide this by the population and you get the GDP per capita.

matplotlib.pyplot is already imported as plt, so you can get started straight away.

Instructions

Print the last item from both the list gdp_cap, and the list life_exp; it is information about Zimbabwe.
Build a line chart, with gdp_cap on the x-axis, and life_exp on the y-axis. Does it make sense to plot this data on a line plot?
Don’t forget to finish off with a plt.show() command, to actually display the plot.

Exercise

# Print the last item of gdp_cap and life_exp
print(gdp_cap[-1])
print(life_exp[-1])


# Make a line plot, gdp_cap on the x-axis, life_exp on the y-axis
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.plot(gdp_cap, life_exp)

# Display the plot
plt.show()

Scatter Plot (1) 散点图

When you have a time scale along the horizontal axis, the line plot is your friend. But in many other cases, when you’re trying to assess if there’s a correlation between two variables, for example, the scatter plot is the better choice. Below is an example of how to build a scatter plot.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.scatter(x,y)
plt.show()

Let’s continue with the gdp_cap versus life_exp plot, the GDP and life expectancy data for different countries in 2007. Maybe a scatter plot will be a better alternative?

Again, the matplotlib.pyplot package is available as plt.

Instructions

Change the line plot that’s coded in the script to a scatter plot.
A correlation will become clear when you display the GDP per capita on a logarithmic scale. Add the line plt.xscale(‘log’).
Finish off your script with plt.show() to display the plot.

Exercise

# Change the line plot below to a scatter plot
plt.scatter(gdp_cap, life_exp)

# Put the x-axis on a logarithmic scale
plt.xscale('log')

# Show plot
plt.show()

Scatter plot (2)

In the previous exercise, you saw that the higher GDP usually corresponds to a higher life expectancy. In other words, there is a positive correlation.

Do you think there’s a relationship between population and life expectancy of a country? The list life_exp from the previous exercise is already available. In addition, now also pop is available, listing the corresponding populations for the countries in 2007. The populations are in millions of people.

Instructions

Start from scratch: import matplotlib.pyplot as plt.
Build a scatter plot, where pop is mapped on the horizontal axis, and life_exp is mapped on the vertical axis.
Finish the script with plt.show() to actually display the plot. Do you see a correlation?

Exercise

# Import package
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# Build Scatter plot
plt.scatter(pop, life_exp)

# Show plot
plt.show()

Build a histogram (1) 直方图

life_exp, the list containing data on the life expectancy for different countries in 2007, is available in your Python shell.

To see how life expectancy in different countries is distributed, let’s create a histogram of life_exp.

matplotlib.pyplot is already available as plt.

Instructions

Use plt.hist() to create a histogram of the values in life_exp. Do not specify the number of bins; Python will set the number of bins to 10 by default for you.
Add plt.show() to actually display the histogram. Can you tell which bin contains the most observations?

Exercise

# Create histogram of life_exp data

plt.hist(life_exp)
# Display histogram
plt.show()

Build a histogram (2): bins

In the previous exercise, you didn’t specify the number of bins. By default, Python sets the number of bins to 10 in that case. The number of bins is pretty important. Too few bins will oversimplify reality and won’t show you the details. Too many bins will overcomplicate reality and won’t show the bigger picture.

To control the number of bins to divide your data in, you can set the bins argument.

That’s exactly what you’ll do in this exercise. You’ll be making two plots here. The code in the script already includes plt.show() and plt.clf() calls; plt.show() displays a plot; plt.clf() cleans it up again so you can start afresh.

As before, life_exp is available and matplotlib.pyplot is imported as plt.

Instructions

Build a histogram of life_exp, with 5 bins. Can you tell which bin contains the most observations?
Build another histogram of life_exp, this time with 20 bins. Is this better?

Exercise

# Build histogram with 5 bins
plt.hist(life_exp, bins=5)

# Show and clean up plot
plt.show()
plt.clf()

# Build histogram with 20 bins

plt.hist(life_exp, bins=20)
# Show and clean up again
plt.show()
plt.clf()

Build a histogram (3): compare

In the video, you saw population pyramids for the present day and for the future. Because we were using a histogram, it was very easy to make a comparison.

Let’s do a similar comparison. life_exp contains life expectancy data for different countries in 2007. You also have access to a second list now, life_exp1950, containing similar data for 1950. Can you make a histogram for both datasets?

You’ll again be making two plots. The plt.show() and plt.clf() commands to render everything nicely are already included. Also matplotlib.pyplot is imported for you, as plt.

Instructions

Build a histogram of life_exp with 15 bins.
Build a histogram of life_exp1950, also with 15 bins. Is there a big difference with the histogram for the 2007 data?

Exercise

# Histogram of life_exp, 15 bins
plt.hist(life_exp, bins=15)

# Show and clear plot
plt.show()
plt.clf()

# Histogram of life_exp1950, 15 bins

plt.hist(life_exp1950,bins=15)
# Show and clear plot again
plt.show()
plt.clf()

Choose the right plot (1)

You’re a professor teaching Data Science with Python, and you want to visually assess if the grades on your exam follow a particular distribution. Which plot do you use?

Choose the right plot (2)

You’re a professor in Data Analytics with Python, and you want to visually assess if longer answers on exam questions lead to higher grades. Which plot do you use?