""" ============================== Plotting categorical variables ============================== How to use categorical variables in Matplotlib. Many times you want to create a plot that uses categorical variables in Matplotlib. Matplotlib allows you to pass categorical variables directly to many plotting functions, which we demonstrate below. """ import matplotlib.pyplot as plt data = {'apple': 10, 'orange': 15, 'lemon': 5, 'lime': 20} names = list(data.keys()) values = list(data.values()) fig, axs = plt.subplots(1, 3, figsize=(9, 3), sharey=True) axs[0].bar(names, values) axs[1].scatter(names, values) axs[2].plot(names, values) fig.suptitle('Categorical Plotting') ############################################################################### # This works on both axes: cat = ["bored", "happy", "bored", "bored", "happy", "bored"] dog = ["happy", "happy", "happy", "happy", "bored", "bored"] activity = ["combing", "drinking", "feeding", "napping", "playing", "washing"] fig, ax = plt.subplots() ax.plot(activity, dog, label="dog") ax.plot(activity, cat, label="cat") ax.legend() plt.show()