.subplots()

Published Mar 31, 2023Updated Apr 10, 2023

The .subplots() method returns a figure with multiple subplots. This method is an efficient way to create popular subplot layouts with a high-level and concise syntax.

Syntax

pyplot.subplots(nrows, ncols)

.subplots() has the following parameters:

Parameter Name	Data Type(s)	Usage
`nrows`, `ncols`	int	The quantity of rows and/or columns within the grid of subplots. Defaults to 1.
`sharex`, `sharey`	bool or one of the following arguments: ‘none’, ‘all’, ‘row’, ‘col’	`sharex` and `sharey` control the sharing of properties among x or y axis of subplots. Shared x-axis or y-axis allows for creating tick labels only on the bottom subplot or first column subplot, respectively. Default is `False`.
`squeeze`	bool	Removes additional dimensions from the array of `Axes` when set to `True` (default). If set to `False`, it will always return a 2D array of `Axes` instances.
`width_ratios`	input of length (`ncols`)	Defines the proportional width of columns, each column width is given by width_ratios[i] / sum(width_ratios). By default, all columns have equal width.
`height_ratios`	array-like input of length (`nrows`)	Sets the proportional height of rows, dividing the total height among them. If not provided, all rows have an equal height.
`subplot_kw`	dict	Dictionary that includes keywords that are passed to the `add_subplot` method, which is used to generate each subplot.
`gridspec_kw`	dict	Dictionary that contains keywords passed to the `GridSpec` constructor for creating the grid where subplots are positioned.
`**fig_kw`		Any other keyword arguments are passed to the `pyplot.figure` method.

Example

The following example returns a 1 x 2 grid of Axes with a pair of sinusoidal plots.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

# Create some sample data
x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
y1 = np.sin(x)
y2 = np.cos(x)

# Create a figure with two subplots, arranged vertically
fig, axs = plt.subplots(2, 1, figsize=(8, 6), layout="constrained")

# Plot the first subplot (top)
axs[0].plot(x, y1)
axs[0].set_title('Sine Plot')
axs[0].set_ylabel('y-axis')

# Plot the second subplot (bottom)
axs[1].plot(x, y2)
axs[1].set_title('Cosine Plot')
axs[1].set_xlabel('x-axis')
axs[1].set_ylabel('y-axis')

# Display the figure
plt.show()