15- Add x and y labels to a pandas plot

Question

Suppose I have the following code that plots something very simple using pandas:

 import pandas as pd
values = [[1, 2], [2, 5]]
df2 = pd.DataFrame(values, columns=['Type A', 'Type B'], 
                   index=['Index 1', 'Index 2'])
df2.plot(lw=2, colormap='jet', marker='.', markersize=10, 
         title='Video streaming dropout by category')

How do I easily set x and y-labels while preserving my ability to use specific colormaps? I noticed that the plot() wrapper for pandas DataFrames doesn't take any parameters specific to that.

Ava Black · Accepted Answer

To resolve pandas plot xlabel you can use the df.plot() function that returns a matplotlib.axes.AxesSubplot object. You can set the labels on that object.

In [4]: ax = df2.plot(lw=2, colormap='jet', marker='.', markersize=10, title='Video streaming dropout by category')
In [6]: ax.set_xlabel("x label")
Out[6]: 
In [7]: ax.set_ylabel("y label")
Out[7]: 
Or, more succinctly: ax.set(xlabel="x label", ylabel="y label").
Automatically, the index x-axis label is set to the Index name if it has one. so df2.index.name = 'x label' would work.

15- Add x and y labels to a pandas plot

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