Add Legend to Seaborn Point Plot

Add Legend to Seaborn Point Plot

I am plotting multiple dataframes as point plot using seaborn. Also I am plotting all the dataframes on the same axis.

How would I add legend to the plot ?

My code takes each of the dataframe and plots it one after another on the same figure.

Each dataframe has same columns

date        count
2017-01-01  35
2017-01-02  43
2017-01-03  12
2017-01-04  27 

My code :

f, ax = plt.subplots(1, 1, figsize=figsize)
x_col='date'
y_col = 'count'
sns.pointplot(ax=ax,x=x_col,y=y_col,data=df_1,color='blue')
sns.pointplot(ax=ax,x=x_col,y=y_col,data=df_2,color='green')
sns.pointplot(ax=ax,x=x_col,y=y_col,data=df_3,color='red')

This plots 3 lines on the same plot. However the legend is missing. The documentation does not accept label argument .

One workaround that worked was creating a new dataframe and using hue argument.

df_1['region'] = 'A'
df_2['region'] = 'B'
df_3['region'] = 'C'
df = pd.concat([df_1,df_2,df_3])
sns.pointplot(ax=ax,x=x_col,y=y_col,data=df,hue='region')

But I would like to know if there is a way to create a legend for the code that first adds sequentially point plot to the figure and then add a legend.

Sample output :

1

4 Answers

I would suggest not to use seaborn pointplot for plotting. This makes things unnecessarily complicated.
Instead use matplotlib plot_date. This allows to set labels to the plots and have them automatically put into a legend with ax.legend().

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import pandas as pd
import seaborn as sns
import numpy as np

date = pd.date_range("2017-03", freq="M", periods=15)
count = np.random.rand(15,4)
df1 = pd.DataFrame({"date":date, "count" : count[:,0]})
df2 = pd.DataFrame({"date":date, "count" : count[:,1]+0.7})
df3 = pd.DataFrame({"date":date, "count" : count[:,2]+2})

f, ax = plt.subplots(1, 1)
x_col='date'
y_col = 'count'

ax.plot_date(df1.date, df1["count"], color="blue", label="A", linestyle="-")
ax.plot_date(df2.date, df2["count"], color="red", label="B", linestyle="-")
ax.plot_date(df3.date, df3["count"], color="green", label="C", linestyle="-")

ax.legend()

plt.gcf().autofmt_xdate()
plt.show()

In case one is still interested in obtaining the legend for pointplots, here a way to go:
sns.pointplot(ax=ax,x=x_col,y=y_col,data=df1,color='blue')
sns.pointplot(ax=ax,x=x_col,y=y_col,data=df2,color='green')
sns.pointplot(ax=ax,x=x_col,y=y_col,data=df3,color='red')

ax.legend(handles=ax.lines[::len(df1)+1], labels=["A","B","C"])

ax.set_xticklabels([t.get_text().split("T")[0] for t in ax.get_xticklabels()])
plt.gcf().autofmt_xdate()

plt.show()
4

Old question, but there's an easier way.

sns.pointplot(x=x_col,y=y_col,data=df_1,color='blue')
sns.pointplot(x=x_col,y=y_col,data=df_2,color='green')
sns.pointplot(x=x_col,y=y_col,data=df_3,color='red')
plt.legend(labels=['legendEntry1', 'legendEntry2', 'legendEntry3'])

This lets you add the plots sequentially, and not have to worry about any of the matplotlib crap besides defining the legend items.

4

I tried using Adam B's answer, however, it didn't work for me. Instead, I found the following workaround for adding legends to pointplots.

import matplotlib.patches as mpatches
red_patch = mpatches.Patch(color='#bb3f3f', label='Label1')
black_patch = mpatches.Patch(color='#000000', label='Label2')

In the pointplots, the color can be specified as mentioned in previous answers. Once these patches corresponding to the different plots are set up,

plt.legend(handles=[red_patch, black_patch])

And the legend ought to appear in the pointplot.

0

This goes a bit beyond the original question, but also builds on @PSub's response to something more general---I do know some of this is easier in Matplotlib directly, but many of the default styling options for Seaborn are quite nice, so I wanted to work out how you could have more than one legend for a point plot (or other Seaborn plot) without dropping into Matplotlib right at the start.

Here's one solution:


import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import seaborn as sns
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# We will need to access some of these matplotlib classes directly
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D # For points and lines
from matplotlib.patches import Patch # For KDE and other plots
from matplotlib.legend import Legend

from matplotlib import cm

# Initialise random number generator
rng = np.random.default_rng(seed=42)

# Generate sample of 25 numbers
n = 25
clusters = []

for c in range(0,3):
    
    # Crude way to get different distributions
    # for each cluster
    p = rng.integers(low=1, high=6, size=4)
    
    df = pd.DataFrame({
        'x': rng.normal(p[0], p[1], n),
        'y': rng.normal(p[2], p[3], n),
        'name': f"Cluster {c+1}"
    })
    clusters.append(df)

# Flatten to a single data frame
clusters = pd.concat(clusters)

# Now do the same for data to feed into
# the second (scatter) plot... 
n = 8
points = []

for c in range(0,2):
    
    p = rng.integers(low=1, high=6, size=4)
    
    df = pd.DataFrame({
        'x': rng.normal(p[0], p[1], n),
        'y': rng.normal(p[2], p[3], n),
        'name': f"Group {c+1}"
    })
    points.append(df)

points = pd.concat(points)

# And create the figure
f, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8,8))

# The KDE-plot generates a Legend 'as usual'
k = sns.kdeplot(
    data=clusters,
    x='x', y='y',
    hue='name',
    shade=True,
    thresh=0.05,
    n_levels=2,
    alpha=0.2,
    ax=ax,
)

# Notice that we access this legend via the
# axis to turn off the frame, set the title, 
# and adjust the patch alpha level so that
# it closely matches the alpha of the KDE-plot
ax.get_legend().set_frame_on(False)
ax.get_legend().set_title("Clusters")
for lh in ax.get_legend().get_patches(): 
    lh.set_alpha(0.2)

# You would probably want to sort your data 
# frame or set the hue and style order in order
# to ensure consistency for your own application
# but this works for demonstration purposes
groups  = points.name.unique()
markers = ['o', 'v', 's', 'X', 'D', '<', '>']
colors  = cm.get_cmap('Dark2').colors

# Generate the scatterplot: notice that Legend is
# off (otherwise this legend would overwrite the 
# first one) and that we're setting the hue, style,
# markers, and palette using the 'name' parameter 
# from the data frame and the number of groups in 
# the data.
p = sns.scatterplot(
    data=points,
    x="x",
    y="y",
    hue='name',
    style='name',
    markers=markers[:len(groups)],
    palette=colors[:len(groups)],
    legend=False,
    s=30,
    alpha=1.0
)

# Here's the 'magic' -- we use zip to link together 
# the group name, the color, and the marker style. You
# *cannot* retreive the marker style from the scatterplot
# since that information is lost when rendered as a 
# PathCollection (as far as I can tell). Anyway, this allows
# us to loop over each group in the second data frame and 
# generate a 'fake' Line2D plot (with zero elements and no
# line-width in our case) that we can add to the legend. If
# you were overlaying a line plot or a second plot that uses
# patches you'd have to tweak this accordingly.
patches = []
for x in zip(groups, colors[:len(groups)], markers[:len(groups)]):
    patches.append(Line2D([0],[0], linewidth=0.0, linestyle='', 
                   color=x[1], markerfacecolor=x[1],
                   marker=x[2], label=x[0], alpha=1.0))

# And add these patches (with their group labels) to the new
# legend item and place it on the plot.
leg = Legend(ax, patches, labels=groups, 
             loc='upper left', frameon=False, title='Groups')
ax.add_artist(leg);

# Done
plt.show();

Here's the output:

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David Miller

David Miller brings 15 years of experience in global economics, personal finance strategy, and market dynamics. He specializes in turning complex economic trends into actionable insights for everyday readers.