matplotlib.pyplot.plot_date   matplotlib.pyplot.plot_date(x, y, fmt='o', tz=None, xdate=True, ydate=False, *, data=None, **kwargs)[source]
 
Plot coercing the axis to treat floats as dates.  Discouraged This method exists for historic reasons and will be deprecated in the future.  
datetime-like data should directly be plotted using plot. If you need to plot plain numeric data as Matplotlib date format or need to set a timezone, call ax.xaxis.axis_date / ax.yaxis.axis_date before plot. See Axis.axis_date.   Similar to plot, this plots y vs. x as lines or markers. However, the axis labels are formatted as dates depending on xdate and ydate. Note that plot will work with datetime and numpy.datetime64 objects without resorting to this method.  Parameters 
 
x, yarray-like


The coordinates of the data points. If xdate or ydate is True, the respective values x or y are interpreted as Matplotlib dates.  
fmtstr, optional


The plot format string. For details, see the corresponding parameter in plot.  
tztimezone string or datetime.tzinfo, default: rcParams["timezone"] (default: 'UTC')


The time zone to use in labeling dates.  
xdatebool, default: True


If True, the x-axis will be interpreted as Matplotlib dates.  
ydatebool, default: False


If True, the y-axis will be interpreted as Matplotlib dates.    Returns 
 list of Line2D


Objects representing the plotted data.    Other Parameters 
 
dataindexable object, optional


If given, the following parameters also accept a string s, which is interpreted as data[s] (unless this raises an exception): x, y  **kwargs

Keyword arguments control the Line2D properties:   
Property Description   
agg_filter a filter function, which takes a (m, n, 3) float array and a dpi value, and returns a (m, n, 3) array  
alpha scalar or None  
animated bool  
antialiased or aa bool  
clip_box Bbox  
clip_on bool  
clip_path Patch or (Path, Transform) or None  
color or c color  
dash_capstyle CapStyle or {'butt', 'projecting', 'round'}  
dash_joinstyle JoinStyle or {'miter', 'round', 'bevel'}  
dashes sequence of floats (on/off ink in points) or (None, None)  
data (2, N) array or two 1D arrays  
drawstyle or ds {'default', 'steps', 'steps-pre', 'steps-mid', 'steps-post'}, default: 'default'  
figure Figure  
fillstyle {'full', 'left', 'right', 'bottom', 'top', 'none'}  
gid str  
in_layout bool  
label object  
linestyle or ls {'-', '--', '-.', ':', '', (offset, on-off-seq), ...}  
linewidth or lw float  
marker marker style string, Path or MarkerStyle  
markeredgecolor or mec color  
markeredgewidth or mew float  
markerfacecolor or mfc color  
markerfacecoloralt or mfcalt color  
markersize or ms float  
markevery None or int or (int, int) or slice or list[int] or float or (float, float) or list[bool]  
path_effects AbstractPathEffect  
picker float or callable[[Artist, Event], tuple[bool, dict]]  
pickradius float  
rasterized bool  
sketch_params (scale: float, length: float, randomness: float)  
snap bool or None  
solid_capstyle CapStyle or {'butt', 'projecting', 'round'}  
solid_joinstyle JoinStyle or {'miter', 'round', 'bevel'}  
transform unknown  
url str  
visible bool  
xdata 1D array  
ydata 1D array  
zorder float        See also  matplotlib.dates

Helper functions on dates.  matplotlib.dates.date2num

Convert dates to num.  matplotlib.dates.num2date

Convert num to dates.  matplotlib.dates.drange

Create an equally spaced sequence of dates.    Notes If you are using custom date tickers and formatters, it may be necessary to set the formatters/locators after the call to plot_date. plot_date will set the default tick locator to AutoDateLocator (if the tick locator is not already set to a DateLocator instance) and the default tick formatter to AutoDateFormatter (if the tick formatter is not already set to a DateFormatter instance).