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How to rotate the offset text in a 3D plot?

I'm trying to plot a 3D figure in Matplotlib with the scale in the offset text. For this purpose, I've used ImportanceOfBeingErnest's custom axis' major formatter in order to have this scale in a latex format:
import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.ticker as ticker
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D
from matplotlib import cm
import numpy as np
class OOMFormatter(matplotlib.ticker.ScalarFormatter):
def __init__(self, order=0, fformat="%1.1f", offset=True, mathText=True):
self.oom = order
self.fformat = fformat
matplotlib.ticker.ScalarFormatter.__init__(self,useOffset=offset,useMathText=mathText)
def _set_order_of_magnitude(self):
self.orderOfMagnitude = self.oom
def _set_format(self, vmin=None, vmax=None):
self.format = self.fformat
if self._useMathText:
self.format = r'$\mathdefault{%s}$' % self.format
x = np.linspace(0, 22, 23)
y = np.linspace(-10, 10, 21)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(x, y)
V = -(np.cos(X/10)*np.cos(Y/10))**2*1e-4
fig, ax = plt.subplots(subplot_kw={"projection": "3d"})
surf = ax.plot_surface(X, Y, V, cmap=cm.jet,
linewidth=0, antialiased=False)
ax.zaxis.set_major_formatter(OOMFormatter(int('{:.2e}'.format(np.min(V)).split('e')[1]), mathText=True))
ax.zaxis.set_rotate_label(False)
ax.set_xlabel(r'$x$ (cm)', size=20, labelpad=10)
ax.set_ylabel(r'$y$ (cm)', size=20, labelpad=10)
ax.set_zlabel(r'$A_z$', size=20, labelpad=10)
This results in the following figure:
Note that the scale (zaxis off-set text, x 10^{-4}) is rotationed 90 degrees. To solve this, I've tried to acess the element of the off-set text and set its rotation to 0:
ax.zaxis.get_offset_text().set_rotation(0)
ax.zaxis.get_offset_text().get_rotation()
>>> 0
Which was of no use, since the off-set text didn't rotate an inch. I've then tried to print the text object when running the plot function:
surf = ax.plot_surface(X, Y, V, cmap=cm.jet,
linewidth=0, antialiased=False)
.
.
.
print(ax.zaxis.get_offset_text())
>>>Text(1, 0, '')
This made me think that perhaps the off-set text wasn't stored inside this variable, but when I run the same command without calling the plot function it returns exactly what I expected it to return:
print(ax.zaxis.get_offset_text())
>>>Text(-0.1039369506424546, 0.050310729257045626, '$\\times\\mathdefault{10^{−4}}\\mathdefault{}$')
What am I doing wrong?

I have to say, this is an excellent and intriguing question and I scratched my head a while over it…
You can access the offset text with ot = ax.zaxis.get_offset_text(). It is easy to hide it ot.set_visible(False), but for some unknown reason it does not work to rotate ot.set_rotation(90). I tried to print the text value with print(ot.get_text()), but this outputs nothing, unless the plot was already drawn. Only after the plot is drawn, it returns '$\\times\\mathdefault{10^{-4}}\\mathdefault{}$'. This tells me that this is likely the source of the problem. Whatever you apply to the offset text, it gets overwritten in a final step of the graph generation and this fails.
I came to the conclusion that the best approach is to hide the offset and annotate yourself the graph. You can do it programmatically using the following snippet:
ax.zaxis.get_offset_text().set_visible(False)
exponent = int('{:.2e}'.format(np.min(V)).split('e')[1])
ax.text(ax.get_xlim()[1]*1.1, ax.get_ylim()[1], ax.get_zlim()[1],
'$\\times\\mathdefault{10^{%d}}\\mathdefault{}$' % exponent)
Result:

How to draw a line through a scatter graph with no overflow

So I am currently plotting a scatter graph with many x and ys in matplotlib:
plt.scatter(x, y)
I want to draw a line on this scatter graph that crosses through the whole graph (i.e hits two 'borders') I know the gradient and the intercept - m and the c in the equation y = mx +c.
I have thought about acquiring the 4 points of the plot (calculating the min and max scatter x and ys) and from that calculating the min and max coords for the line and then plotting but that seems very convoluted. Is there any better way to do this bearing in mind the line may not even be 'within' the 'plot'?
Example of scatter graph:
as identified visually in the plot the four bordering coordinates are ruffly:
bottom left: -1,-2
top left: -1,2
bottom right: 6,-2
top right 6,2
I now have a line that I need to plot that must not exceed these boundaries but if it enters the plot must touch two of the boundary points.
So I could check what y equals when x = -1 and then check if that value is between -1 and 6 and if it is the line must cross the left border, so plot it, and so on and so fourth.
Ideally though I would create a line from -infinity to infinity and then crop it to fit the plot.

The idea here is to draw a line of some equation y=m*x+y0 into the plot. This can be achieved by transforming a horizontal line, originally given in axes coordinates, into data coordinates, applying the Affine2D transform according to the line equation and transforming back to screen coordinates.
The advantage here is that you do not need to know the axes limits at all. You may also freely zoom or pan your plot; the line will always stay within the axes boundaries. It hence effectively implements a line ranging from -infinity to + inifinty.
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.transforms as mtransforms
def axaline(m,y0, ax=None, **kwargs):
if not ax:
ax = plt.gca()
tr = mtransforms.BboxTransformTo(
mtransforms.TransformedBbox(ax.viewLim, ax.transScale)) + \
ax.transScale.inverted()
aff = mtransforms.Affine2D.from_values(1,m,0,0,0,y0)
trinv = ax.transData
line = plt.Line2D([0,1],[0,0],transform=tr+aff+trinv, **kwargs)
ax.add_line(line)
x = np.random.rand(20)*6-0.7
y = (np.random.rand(20)-.5)*4
c = (x > 3).astype(int)
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.scatter(x,y, c=c, cmap="bwr")
# draw y=m*x+y0 into the plot
m = 0.4; y0 = -1
axaline(m,y0, ax=ax, color="limegreen", linewidth=5)
plt.show()
While this solution looks a bit complicated on first sight, one does not need to fully understand it. Just copy the axaline function to your code and use it as it is.
In order to get the automatic updating working without the transforms doing this, one may add callbacks which would reset the transform every time something changes in the plot.
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib import transforms
class axaline():
def __init__(self, m,y0, ax=None, **kwargs):
if not ax: ax = plt.gca()
self.ax = ax
self.aff = transforms.Affine2D.from_values(1,m,0,0,0,y0)
self.line = plt.Line2D([0,1],[0,0], **kwargs)
self.update()
self.ax.add_line(self.line)
self.ax.callbacks.connect('xlim_changed', self.update)
self.ax.callbacks.connect('ylim_changed', self.update)
def update(self, evt=None):
tr = ax.transAxes - ax.transData
trinv = ax.transData
self.line.set_transform(tr+self.aff+trinv)
x = np.random.rand(20)*6-0.7
y = (np.random.rand(20)-.5)*4
c = (x > 3).astype(int)
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.scatter(x,y, c=c, cmap="bwr")
# draw y=m*x+y0 into the plot
m = 0.4; y0 = -1
al = axaline(m,y0, ax=ax, color="limegreen", linewidth=5)
plt.show()

You may try:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
m=3
c=-2
x1Data= np.random.normal(scale=2, loc=.4, size=25)
y1Data= np.random.normal(scale=3, loc=1.2, size=25)
x2Data= np.random.normal(scale=1, loc=3.4, size=25)
y2Data= np.random.normal(scale=.65, loc=-.2, size=25)
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot( 1, 1, 1 )
ax.scatter(x1Data, y1Data)
ax.scatter(x2Data, y2Data)
ylim = ax.get_ylim()
xlim = ax.get_xlim()
ax.plot( xlim, [ m * x + c for x in xlim ], 'r:' )
ax.set_ylim( ylim )
ax.set_xlim( xlim )
plt.show()
which gives:

Smoothing and breaking x-axis with datetime index in matplotlib python [duplicate]

I'm trying to create a plot using pyplot that has a discontinuous x-axis. The usual way this is drawn is that the axis will have something like this:
(values)----//----(later values)
where the // indicates that you're skipping everything between (values) and (later values).
I haven't been able to find any examples of this, so I'm wondering if it's even possible. I know you can join data over a discontinuity for, eg, financial data, but I'd like to make the jump in the axis more explicit. At the moment I'm just using subplots but I'd really like to have everything end up on the same graph in the end.

Paul's answer is a perfectly fine method of doing this.
However, if you don't want to make a custom transform, you can just use two subplots to create the same effect.
Rather than put together an example from scratch, there's an excellent example of this written by Paul Ivanov in the matplotlib examples (It's only in the current git tip, as it was only committed a few months ago. It's not on the webpage yet.).
This is just a simple modification of this example to have a discontinuous x-axis instead of the y-axis. (Which is why I'm making this post a CW)
Basically, you just do something like this:
import matplotlib.pylab as plt
import numpy as np
# If you're not familiar with np.r_, don't worry too much about this. It's just
# a series with points from 0 to 1 spaced at 0.1, and 9 to 10 with the same spacing.
x = np.r_[0:1:0.1, 9:10:0.1]
y = np.sin(x)
fig,(ax,ax2) = plt.subplots(1, 2, sharey=True)
# plot the same data on both axes
ax.plot(x, y, 'bo')
ax2.plot(x, y, 'bo')
# zoom-in / limit the view to different portions of the data
ax.set_xlim(0,1) # most of the data
ax2.set_xlim(9,10) # outliers only
# hide the spines between ax and ax2
ax.spines['right'].set_visible(False)
ax2.spines['left'].set_visible(False)
ax.yaxis.tick_left()
ax.tick_params(labeltop='off') # don't put tick labels at the top
ax2.yaxis.tick_right()
# Make the spacing between the two axes a bit smaller
plt.subplots_adjust(wspace=0.15)
plt.show()
To add the broken axis lines // effect, we can do this (again, modified from Paul Ivanov's example):
import matplotlib.pylab as plt
import numpy as np
# If you're not familiar with np.r_, don't worry too much about this. It's just
# a series with points from 0 to 1 spaced at 0.1, and 9 to 10 with the same spacing.
x = np.r_[0:1:0.1, 9:10:0.1]
y = np.sin(x)
fig,(ax,ax2) = plt.subplots(1, 2, sharey=True)
# plot the same data on both axes
ax.plot(x, y, 'bo')
ax2.plot(x, y, 'bo')
# zoom-in / limit the view to different portions of the data
ax.set_xlim(0,1) # most of the data
ax2.set_xlim(9,10) # outliers only
# hide the spines between ax and ax2
ax.spines['right'].set_visible(False)
ax2.spines['left'].set_visible(False)
ax.yaxis.tick_left()
ax.tick_params(labeltop='off') # don't put tick labels at the top
ax2.yaxis.tick_right()
# Make the spacing between the two axes a bit smaller
plt.subplots_adjust(wspace=0.15)
# This looks pretty good, and was fairly painless, but you can get that
# cut-out diagonal lines look with just a bit more work. The important
# thing to know here is that in axes coordinates, which are always
# between 0-1, spine endpoints are at these locations (0,0), (0,1),
# (1,0), and (1,1). Thus, we just need to put the diagonals in the
# appropriate corners of each of our axes, and so long as we use the
# right transform and disable clipping.
d = .015 # how big to make the diagonal lines in axes coordinates
# arguments to pass plot, just so we don't keep repeating them
kwargs = dict(transform=ax.transAxes, color='k', clip_on=False)
ax.plot((1-d,1+d),(-d,+d), **kwargs) # top-left diagonal
ax.plot((1-d,1+d),(1-d,1+d), **kwargs) # bottom-left diagonal
kwargs.update(transform=ax2.transAxes) # switch to the bottom axes
ax2.plot((-d,d),(-d,+d), **kwargs) # top-right diagonal
ax2.plot((-d,d),(1-d,1+d), **kwargs) # bottom-right diagonal
# What's cool about this is that now if we vary the distance between
# ax and ax2 via f.subplots_adjust(hspace=...) or plt.subplot_tool(),
# the diagonal lines will move accordingly, and stay right at the tips
# of the spines they are 'breaking'
plt.show()

I see many suggestions for this feature but no indication that it's been implemented. Here is a workable solution for the time-being. It applies a step-function transform to the x-axis. It's a lot of code, but it's fairly simple since most of it is boilerplate custom scale stuff. I have not added any graphics to indicate the location of the break, since that is a matter of style. Good luck finishing the job.
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
from matplotlib import scale as mscale
from matplotlib import transforms as mtransforms
import numpy as np
def CustomScaleFactory(l, u):
class CustomScale(mscale.ScaleBase):
name = 'custom'
def __init__(self, axis, **kwargs):
mscale.ScaleBase.__init__(self)
self.thresh = None #thresh
def get_transform(self):
return self.CustomTransform(self.thresh)
def set_default_locators_and_formatters(self, axis):
pass
class CustomTransform(mtransforms.Transform):
input_dims = 1
output_dims = 1
is_separable = True
lower = l
upper = u
def __init__(self, thresh):
mtransforms.Transform.__init__(self)
self.thresh = thresh
def transform(self, a):
aa = a.copy()
aa[a>self.lower] = a[a>self.lower]-(self.upper-self.lower)
aa[(a>self.lower)&(a<self.upper)] = self.lower
return aa
def inverted(self):
return CustomScale.InvertedCustomTransform(self.thresh)
class InvertedCustomTransform(mtransforms.Transform):
input_dims = 1
output_dims = 1
is_separable = True
lower = l
upper = u
def __init__(self, thresh):
mtransforms.Transform.__init__(self)
self.thresh = thresh
def transform(self, a):
aa = a.copy()
aa[a>self.lower] = a[a>self.lower]+(self.upper-self.lower)
return aa
def inverted(self):
return CustomScale.CustomTransform(self.thresh)
return CustomScale
mscale.register_scale(CustomScaleFactory(1.12, 8.88))
x = np.concatenate((np.linspace(0,1,10), np.linspace(9,10,10)))
xticks = np.concatenate((np.linspace(0,1,6), np.linspace(9,10,6)))
y = np.sin(x)
plt.plot(x, y, '.')
ax = plt.gca()
ax.set_xscale('custom')
ax.set_xticks(xticks)
plt.show()

Check the brokenaxes package:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from brokenaxes import brokenaxes
import numpy as np
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(5,2))
bax = brokenaxes(
xlims=((0, .1), (.4, .7)),
ylims=((-1, .7), (.79, 1)),
hspace=.05
)
x = np.linspace(0, 1, 100)
bax.plot(x, np.sin(10 * x), label='sin')
bax.plot(x, np.cos(10 * x), label='cos')
bax.legend(loc=3)
bax.set_xlabel('time')
bax.set_ylabel('value')

A very simple hack is to
scatter plot rectangles over the axes' spines and
draw the "//" as text at that position.
Worked like a charm for me:
# FAKE BROKEN AXES
# plot a white rectangle on the x-axis-spine to "break" it
xpos = 10 # x position of the "break"
ypos = plt.gca().get_ylim()[0] # y position of the "break"
plt.scatter(xpos, ypos, color='white', marker='s', s=80, clip_on=False, zorder=100)
# draw "//" on the same place as text
plt.text(xpos, ymin-0.125, r'//', fontsize=label_size, zorder=101, horizontalalignment='center', verticalalignment='center')
Example Plot:

For those interested, I've expanded upon #Paul's answer and added it to the matplotlib wrapper proplot. It can do axis "jumps", "speedups", and "slowdowns".
There is no way currently to add "crosses" that indicate the discrete jump like in Joe's answer, but I plan to add this in the future. I also plan to add a default "tick locator" that sets sensible default tick locations depending on the CutoffScale arguments.

Adressing Frederick Nord's question how to enable parallel orientation of the diagonal "breaking" lines when using a gridspec with ratios unequal 1:1, the following changes based on the proposals of Paul Ivanov and Joe Kingtons may be helpful. Width ratio can be varied using variables n and m.
import matplotlib.pylab as plt
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.gridspec as gridspec
x = np.r_[0:1:0.1, 9:10:0.1]
y = np.sin(x)
n = 5; m = 1;
gs = gridspec.GridSpec(1,2, width_ratios = [n,m])
plt.figure(figsize=(10,8))
ax = plt.subplot(gs[0,0])
ax2 = plt.subplot(gs[0,1], sharey = ax)
plt.setp(ax2.get_yticklabels(), visible=False)
plt.subplots_adjust(wspace = 0.1)
ax.plot(x, y, 'bo')
ax2.plot(x, y, 'bo')
ax.set_xlim(0,1)
ax2.set_xlim(10,8)
# hide the spines between ax and ax2
ax.spines['right'].set_visible(False)
ax2.spines['left'].set_visible(False)
ax.yaxis.tick_left()
ax.tick_params(labeltop='off') # don't put tick labels at the top
ax2.yaxis.tick_right()
d = .015 # how big to make the diagonal lines in axes coordinates
# arguments to pass plot, just so we don't keep repeating them
kwargs = dict(transform=ax.transAxes, color='k', clip_on=False)
on = (n+m)/n; om = (n+m)/m;
ax.plot((1-d*on,1+d*on),(-d,d), **kwargs) # bottom-left diagonal
ax.plot((1-d*on,1+d*on),(1-d,1+d), **kwargs) # top-left diagonal
kwargs.update(transform=ax2.transAxes) # switch to the bottom axes
ax2.plot((-d*om,d*om),(-d,d), **kwargs) # bottom-right diagonal
ax2.plot((-d*om,d*om),(1-d,1+d), **kwargs) # top-right diagonal
plt.show()

This is a hacky but pretty solution for x-axis breaks.
The solution is based on https://matplotlib.org/stable/gallery/subplots_axes_and_figures/broken_axis.html, which gets rid of the problem with positioning the break above the spine, solved by How can I plot points so they appear over top of the spines with matplotlib?
from matplotlib.patches import Rectangle
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
def axis_break(axis, xpos=[0.1, 0.125], slant=1.5):
d = slant # proportion of vertical to horizontal extent of the slanted line
anchor = (xpos[0], -1)
w = xpos[1] - xpos[0]
h = 1
kwargs = dict(marker=[(-1, -d), (1, d)], markersize=12, zorder=3,
linestyle="none", color='k', mec='k', mew=1, clip_on=False)
axis.add_patch(Rectangle(
anchor, w, h, fill=True, color="white",
transform=axis.transAxes, clip_on=False, zorder=3)
)
axis.plot(xpos, [0, 0], transform=axis.transAxes, **kwargs)
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1,1)
plt.plot(np.arange(10))
axis_break(ax, xpos=[0.1, 0.12], slant=1.5)
axis_break(ax, xpos=[0.3, 0.31], slant=-10)
if you want to replace an axis label, this would do the trick:
from matplotlib import ticker
def replace_pos_with_label(fig, pos, label, axis):
fig.canvas.draw() # this is needed to set up the x-ticks
labs = axis.get_xticklabels()
labels = []
locs = []
for text in labs:
x = text._x
lab = text._text
if x == pos:
lab = label
labels.append(lab)
locs.append(x)
axis.xaxis.set_major_locator(ticker.FixedLocator(locs))
axis.set_xticklabels(labels)
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1,1)
plt.plot(np.arange(10))
replace_pos_with_label(fig, 0, "-10", axis=ax)
replace_pos_with_label(fig, 6, "$10^{4}$", axis=ax)
axis_break(ax, xpos=[0.1, 0.12], slant=2)

Getting the coordinates of the arrow in a Matplotlib annotation

Following on from my previous question I have the coordinates of the text label box in figure fraction coordinates and attempted to get the coordinates of the arrow patch in the same way.
But the coordinates I get do not correspond to the arrow, because when I plot a line over the same coordinates it doesn't lie on top of it:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('agg')
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
def f(x):
return 10 * np.sin(3*x)**4
x = np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, 100)
y = f(x)
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(x,y)
xpt = 1.75
ypt = f(xpt)
xy = ax.transData.transform([xpt, ypt])
xy = fig.transFigure.inverted().transform(xy)
xytext = xy + [0.1, -0.1]
rdx, rdy = 0, 1
ann = ax.annotate('A point', xy=xy, xycoords='figure fraction',
xytext=xytext, textcoords='figure fraction',
arrowprops=dict(arrowstyle='->', connectionstyle="arc3",
relpos=(rdx, rdy)),
bbox=dict(fc='gray', edgecolor='k', alpha=0.5),
ha='left', va='top'
)
fig.canvas.draw()
leader_line_box = ann.arrow_patch.get_extents()
print(leader_line_box)
leader_line_box = fig.transFigure.inverted().transform(leader_line_box)
print(leader_line_box)
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
line = Line2D(leader_line_box.T[0], leader_line_box.T[1],transform=fig.transFigure, lw=2, color='m')
ax.add_line(line)
plt.savefig('test.png')
How can I get the ((x0,y0), (x1,y1)) coordinates of the annotation arrow in figure fraction units and what has gone wrong in my attempt here?

The easiest way in this very specific case is to just draw the x-coordinates in reverse
line = Line2D(leader_line_box.T[0][::-1], leader_line_box.T[1],transform=fig.transFigure, lw=2, color='m')
If you need a more general solution,
verts = ann.arrow_patch.get_path()._vertices
tverts= fig.transFigure.inverted().transform(verts)
index = [0,2]
line = Line2D([tverts[index[0],0],tverts[index[1],0]], [tverts[index[0],1],tverts[index[1],1]],
transform=fig.transFigure, lw=2, color='m')
ax.add_line(line)
This will work for any arrow direction (pointing upwards or downwards, east or west) but is specific to the arrowprops arguments arrowstyle='->' and connectionstyle="arc3". Using different arrowstyle or connection style will require to set index to different values which can be found by chosing the appropriate indices from the array stored in verts.
In a very general case one can also look at the following:
box = ann.arrow_patch._posA_posB
tbox = fig.transFigure.inverted().transform(leader_line_box)
print tbox
line = Line2D(tbox.T[0], tbox.T[1],transform=fig.transFigure)
However this will get you the line between the annotated point and the text itself. In general this line might be different from the actual arrow, depending in the arrow style in use.

You're almost there, you have the coordinates of the bounding box of the arrow, which is the box drawn using the arrow as the diagonal. From that, we can find the head / tail coordinates.
The bounding box coordinates are given in the order [[left, bottom], [right, top]]. Here, the arrow head is at the top left, and tail is bottom right. So we can draw two lines to visually mark these. Replacing that section in your code with this:
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
dl = 0.01 # some arbitrary length for the marker line
head = [leader_line_box.T[0][0], leader_line_box.T[1][1]]
line_head = Line2D([head[0],head[0]+dl], [head[1],head[1]+dl],
transform=fig.transFigure, lw=2, color='r') # mark head with red
ax.add_line(line_head)
tail = [leader_line_box.T[0][1], leader_line_box.T[1][0]]
line_tail = Line2D([tail[0],tail[0]+dl], [tail[1],tail[1]+dl],
transform=fig.transFigure, lw=2, color='g') # mark tail with green
ax.add_line(line_tail)
results in the following plot:

Is there a way to make a discontinuous axis in Matplotlib?

I'm trying to create a plot using pyplot that has a discontinuous x-axis. The usual way this is drawn is that the axis will have something like this:
(values)----//----(later values)
where the // indicates that you're skipping everything between (values) and (later values).
I haven't been able to find any examples of this, so I'm wondering if it's even possible. I know you can join data over a discontinuity for, eg, financial data, but I'd like to make the jump in the axis more explicit. At the moment I'm just using subplots but I'd really like to have everything end up on the same graph in the end.

Paul's answer is a perfectly fine method of doing this.
However, if you don't want to make a custom transform, you can just use two subplots to create the same effect.
Rather than put together an example from scratch, there's an excellent example of this written by Paul Ivanov in the matplotlib examples (It's only in the current git tip, as it was only committed a few months ago. It's not on the webpage yet.).
This is just a simple modification of this example to have a discontinuous x-axis instead of the y-axis. (Which is why I'm making this post a CW)
Basically, you just do something like this:
import matplotlib.pylab as plt
import numpy as np
# If you're not familiar with np.r_, don't worry too much about this. It's just
# a series with points from 0 to 1 spaced at 0.1, and 9 to 10 with the same spacing.
x = np.r_[0:1:0.1, 9:10:0.1]
y = np.sin(x)
fig,(ax,ax2) = plt.subplots(1, 2, sharey=True)
# plot the same data on both axes
ax.plot(x, y, 'bo')
ax2.plot(x, y, 'bo')
# zoom-in / limit the view to different portions of the data
ax.set_xlim(0,1) # most of the data
ax2.set_xlim(9,10) # outliers only
# hide the spines between ax and ax2
ax.spines['right'].set_visible(False)
ax2.spines['left'].set_visible(False)
ax.yaxis.tick_left()
ax.tick_params(labeltop='off') # don't put tick labels at the top
ax2.yaxis.tick_right()
# Make the spacing between the two axes a bit smaller
plt.subplots_adjust(wspace=0.15)
plt.show()
To add the broken axis lines // effect, we can do this (again, modified from Paul Ivanov's example):
import matplotlib.pylab as plt
import numpy as np
# If you're not familiar with np.r_, don't worry too much about this. It's just
# a series with points from 0 to 1 spaced at 0.1, and 9 to 10 with the same spacing.
x = np.r_[0:1:0.1, 9:10:0.1]
y = np.sin(x)
fig,(ax,ax2) = plt.subplots(1, 2, sharey=True)
# plot the same data on both axes
ax.plot(x, y, 'bo')
ax2.plot(x, y, 'bo')
# zoom-in / limit the view to different portions of the data
ax.set_xlim(0,1) # most of the data
ax2.set_xlim(9,10) # outliers only
# hide the spines between ax and ax2
ax.spines['right'].set_visible(False)
ax2.spines['left'].set_visible(False)
ax.yaxis.tick_left()
ax.tick_params(labeltop='off') # don't put tick labels at the top
ax2.yaxis.tick_right()
# Make the spacing between the two axes a bit smaller
plt.subplots_adjust(wspace=0.15)
# This looks pretty good, and was fairly painless, but you can get that
# cut-out diagonal lines look with just a bit more work. The important
# thing to know here is that in axes coordinates, which are always
# between 0-1, spine endpoints are at these locations (0,0), (0,1),
# (1,0), and (1,1). Thus, we just need to put the diagonals in the
# appropriate corners of each of our axes, and so long as we use the
# right transform and disable clipping.
d = .015 # how big to make the diagonal lines in axes coordinates
# arguments to pass plot, just so we don't keep repeating them
kwargs = dict(transform=ax.transAxes, color='k', clip_on=False)
ax.plot((1-d,1+d),(-d,+d), **kwargs) # top-left diagonal
ax.plot((1-d,1+d),(1-d,1+d), **kwargs) # bottom-left diagonal
kwargs.update(transform=ax2.transAxes) # switch to the bottom axes
ax2.plot((-d,d),(-d,+d), **kwargs) # top-right diagonal
ax2.plot((-d,d),(1-d,1+d), **kwargs) # bottom-right diagonal
# What's cool about this is that now if we vary the distance between
# ax and ax2 via f.subplots_adjust(hspace=...) or plt.subplot_tool(),
# the diagonal lines will move accordingly, and stay right at the tips
# of the spines they are 'breaking'
plt.show()

I see many suggestions for this feature but no indication that it's been implemented. Here is a workable solution for the time-being. It applies a step-function transform to the x-axis. It's a lot of code, but it's fairly simple since most of it is boilerplate custom scale stuff. I have not added any graphics to indicate the location of the break, since that is a matter of style. Good luck finishing the job.
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
from matplotlib import scale as mscale
from matplotlib import transforms as mtransforms
import numpy as np
def CustomScaleFactory(l, u):
class CustomScale(mscale.ScaleBase):
name = 'custom'
def __init__(self, axis, **kwargs):
mscale.ScaleBase.__init__(self)
self.thresh = None #thresh
def get_transform(self):
return self.CustomTransform(self.thresh)
def set_default_locators_and_formatters(self, axis):
pass
class CustomTransform(mtransforms.Transform):
input_dims = 1
output_dims = 1
is_separable = True
lower = l
upper = u
def __init__(self, thresh):
mtransforms.Transform.__init__(self)
self.thresh = thresh
def transform(self, a):
aa = a.copy()
aa[a>self.lower] = a[a>self.lower]-(self.upper-self.lower)
aa[(a>self.lower)&(a<self.upper)] = self.lower
return aa
def inverted(self):
return CustomScale.InvertedCustomTransform(self.thresh)
class InvertedCustomTransform(mtransforms.Transform):
input_dims = 1
output_dims = 1
is_separable = True
lower = l
upper = u
def __init__(self, thresh):
mtransforms.Transform.__init__(self)
self.thresh = thresh
def transform(self, a):
aa = a.copy()
aa[a>self.lower] = a[a>self.lower]+(self.upper-self.lower)
return aa
def inverted(self):
return CustomScale.CustomTransform(self.thresh)
return CustomScale
mscale.register_scale(CustomScaleFactory(1.12, 8.88))
x = np.concatenate((np.linspace(0,1,10), np.linspace(9,10,10)))
xticks = np.concatenate((np.linspace(0,1,6), np.linspace(9,10,6)))
y = np.sin(x)
plt.plot(x, y, '.')
ax = plt.gca()
ax.set_xscale('custom')
ax.set_xticks(xticks)
plt.show()

Check the brokenaxes package:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from brokenaxes import brokenaxes
import numpy as np
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(5,2))
bax = brokenaxes(
xlims=((0, .1), (.4, .7)),
ylims=((-1, .7), (.79, 1)),
hspace=.05
)
x = np.linspace(0, 1, 100)
bax.plot(x, np.sin(10 * x), label='sin')
bax.plot(x, np.cos(10 * x), label='cos')
bax.legend(loc=3)
bax.set_xlabel('time')
bax.set_ylabel('value')

A very simple hack is to
scatter plot rectangles over the axes' spines and
draw the "//" as text at that position.
Worked like a charm for me:
# FAKE BROKEN AXES
# plot a white rectangle on the x-axis-spine to "break" it
xpos = 10 # x position of the "break"
ypos = plt.gca().get_ylim()[0] # y position of the "break"
plt.scatter(xpos, ypos, color='white', marker='s', s=80, clip_on=False, zorder=100)
# draw "//" on the same place as text
plt.text(xpos, ymin-0.125, r'//', fontsize=label_size, zorder=101, horizontalalignment='center', verticalalignment='center')
Example Plot:

For those interested, I've expanded upon #Paul's answer and added it to the matplotlib wrapper proplot. It can do axis "jumps", "speedups", and "slowdowns".
There is no way currently to add "crosses" that indicate the discrete jump like in Joe's answer, but I plan to add this in the future. I also plan to add a default "tick locator" that sets sensible default tick locations depending on the CutoffScale arguments.

Adressing Frederick Nord's question how to enable parallel orientation of the diagonal "breaking" lines when using a gridspec with ratios unequal 1:1, the following changes based on the proposals of Paul Ivanov and Joe Kingtons may be helpful. Width ratio can be varied using variables n and m.
import matplotlib.pylab as plt
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.gridspec as gridspec
x = np.r_[0:1:0.1, 9:10:0.1]
y = np.sin(x)
n = 5; m = 1;
gs = gridspec.GridSpec(1,2, width_ratios = [n,m])
plt.figure(figsize=(10,8))
ax = plt.subplot(gs[0,0])
ax2 = plt.subplot(gs[0,1], sharey = ax)
plt.setp(ax2.get_yticklabels(), visible=False)
plt.subplots_adjust(wspace = 0.1)
ax.plot(x, y, 'bo')
ax2.plot(x, y, 'bo')
ax.set_xlim(0,1)
ax2.set_xlim(10,8)
# hide the spines between ax and ax2
ax.spines['right'].set_visible(False)
ax2.spines['left'].set_visible(False)
ax.yaxis.tick_left()
ax.tick_params(labeltop='off') # don't put tick labels at the top
ax2.yaxis.tick_right()
d = .015 # how big to make the diagonal lines in axes coordinates
# arguments to pass plot, just so we don't keep repeating them
kwargs = dict(transform=ax.transAxes, color='k', clip_on=False)
on = (n+m)/n; om = (n+m)/m;
ax.plot((1-d*on,1+d*on),(-d,d), **kwargs) # bottom-left diagonal
ax.plot((1-d*on,1+d*on),(1-d,1+d), **kwargs) # top-left diagonal
kwargs.update(transform=ax2.transAxes) # switch to the bottom axes
ax2.plot((-d*om,d*om),(-d,d), **kwargs) # bottom-right diagonal
ax2.plot((-d*om,d*om),(1-d,1+d), **kwargs) # top-right diagonal
plt.show()

This is a hacky but pretty solution for x-axis breaks.
The solution is based on https://matplotlib.org/stable/gallery/subplots_axes_and_figures/broken_axis.html, which gets rid of the problem with positioning the break above the spine, solved by How can I plot points so they appear over top of the spines with matplotlib?
from matplotlib.patches import Rectangle
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
def axis_break(axis, xpos=[0.1, 0.125], slant=1.5):
d = slant # proportion of vertical to horizontal extent of the slanted line
anchor = (xpos[0], -1)
w = xpos[1] - xpos[0]
h = 1
kwargs = dict(marker=[(-1, -d), (1, d)], markersize=12, zorder=3,
linestyle="none", color='k', mec='k', mew=1, clip_on=False)
axis.add_patch(Rectangle(
anchor, w, h, fill=True, color="white",
transform=axis.transAxes, clip_on=False, zorder=3)
)
axis.plot(xpos, [0, 0], transform=axis.transAxes, **kwargs)
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1,1)
plt.plot(np.arange(10))
axis_break(ax, xpos=[0.1, 0.12], slant=1.5)
axis_break(ax, xpos=[0.3, 0.31], slant=-10)
if you want to replace an axis label, this would do the trick:
from matplotlib import ticker
def replace_pos_with_label(fig, pos, label, axis):
fig.canvas.draw() # this is needed to set up the x-ticks
labs = axis.get_xticklabels()
labels = []
locs = []
for text in labs:
x = text._x
lab = text._text
if x == pos:
lab = label
labels.append(lab)
locs.append(x)
axis.xaxis.set_major_locator(ticker.FixedLocator(locs))
axis.set_xticklabels(labels)
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1,1)
plt.plot(np.arange(10))
replace_pos_with_label(fig, 0, "-10", axis=ax)
replace_pos_with_label(fig, 6, "$10^{4}$", axis=ax)
axis_break(ax, xpos=[0.1, 0.12], slant=2)