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pythonmatplotliblegendcontour

How do you create a legend for a contour plot?

I can't seem to find the answer anywhere! I found a discussion here, but trying this I get a TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not iterable:

>>> import numpy as np
>>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
>>> x, y = np.meshgrid(np.arange(10),np.arange(10))
>>> z = x + y
>>> cs = plt.contourf(x,y,z,levels=[2,3])
>>> cs.collections[0].set_label('test')
>>> plt.legend()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 2791, in legend
    ret =  gca().legend(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/axes.py", line 4475, in legend
    self.legend_ = mlegend.Legend(self, handles, labels, **kwargs)
  File "/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/legend.py", line 365, in __init__
    self._init_legend_box(handles, labels)
  File "/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/legend.py", line 627, in _init_legend_box
    handlebox)
  File "/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/legend_handler.py", line 110, in __call__
    handlebox.get_transform())
  File "/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/legend_handler.py", line 352, in create_artists
    width, height, fontsize)
  File "/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/legend_handler.py", line 307, in get_sizes
    size_max = max(orig_handle.get_sizes())*legend.markerscale**2
TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not iterable

EDIT: I'm looking for something like this:

kamland solar delta chi-squared map

Solution

  • You can create proxy artists to make the legend:

    import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
x, y = np.meshgrid(np.arange(10),np.arange(10))
z = np.sqrt(x**2 + y**2)
cs = plt.contourf(x,y,z,levels=[2,3,4,6])

proxy = [plt.Rectangle((0,0),1,1,fc = pc.get_facecolor()[0]) 
    for pc in cs.collections]

plt.legend(proxy, ["range(2-3)", "range(3-4)", "range(4-6)"])
plt.show()

    enter image description here