Learn

Sometimes, when we’re putting multiple subplots together, some elements can overlap and make the figure unreadable:

overlapping

We can customize the spacing between our subplots to make sure that the figure we create is visible and easy to understand. To do this, we use the plt.subplots_adjust() command. .subplots_adjust() has some keyword arguments that can move your plots within the figure:

left — the left-side margin, with a default of 0.125. You can increase this number to make room for a y-axis label
right — the right-side margin, with a default of 0.9. You can increase this to make more room for the figure, or decrease it to make room for a legend
bottom — the bottom margin, with a default of 0.1. You can increase this to make room for tick mark labels or an x-axis label
top — the top margin, with a default of 0.9
wspace — the horizontal space between adjacent subplots, with a default of 0.2
hspace — the vertical space between adjacent subplots, with a default of 0.2

For example, if we were adding space to the bottom of a graph by changing the bottom margin to 0.2 (instead of the default of 0.1), we would use the command:

plt.subplots_adjust(bottom=0.2)

We can also use multiple keyword arguments, if we need to adjust multiple margins. For instance, we could adjust both the top and the hspace:

plt.subplots_adjust(top=0.95, hspace=0.25)

Let’s use wspace to fix the figure above:

# Left Plot
plt.subplot(1, 2, 1)
plt.plot([-2, -1, 0, 1, 2], [4, 1, 0, 1, 4])

# Right Plot
plt.subplot(1, 2, 2)
plt.plot([-2, -1, 0, 1, 2], [4, 1, 0, 1, 4])

# Subplot Adjust
plt.subplots_adjust(wspace=0.35)

plt.show()

This would give us figure with a better layout:

fixed

Instructions

We are going to create a figure that has two rows of subplots. It should have:

one subplot in the top row
two subplots in the bottom row

subplot_adjust_ckpt

Start by using the subplot method to instantiate the subplot in the top row (the box with the star in it).

Plot straight_line vs x in this subplot you’ve selected.

Now, use the plt.subplot() command to select the box in the first column of the second row (the one with a square in it). Plot parabola vs x in this box.

Now, use the plt.subplot() command to select the box in the second column of the second row (the one with a triangle in it). Plot cubic vs x in this box.

Increase the spacing between horizontal subplots to 0.35 and the bottom margin to 0.2.

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