How do I set limits for axes in matplotlib?

I have this code:

ax = fig.add_axes([0.1, 0.1, 0.55, 0.8])

I want to set a lowerbound of args.avg_window on the x-axis of ax. I have tried using xlim, set_xlim, set_xbound, and now adding xrange=(args.avg_window, args.posts_limit) to that function call, but nothing seems to work:

With

ax = fig.add_axes([0.1, 0.1, 0.55, 0.8], xrange=(args.avg_window, args.posts_limit))

I get this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 162, in _run_module_as_main
    "__main__", fname, loader, pkg_name)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 72, in _run_code
    exec code in run_globals
  File "/Users/d3admin6/python_phpBB_scraper/analysis/liwc/plot_forum_emos.py", line 334, in <module>
    .format(args.xattr, args.yattr, window_str))
  File "/Users/d3admin6/python_phpBB_scraper/analysis/liwc/plot_forum_emos.py", line 247, in plot_emos_line
    ax = fig.add_axes([0.1, 0.1, 0.55, 0.8], xrange=(args.avg_window, args.posts_limit))
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/figure.py", line 806, in add_axes
    a = projection_class(self, rect, **kwargs)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/axes.py", line 499, in __init__
    martist.setp(self, **kwargs)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/artist.py", line 1229, in setp
    func = getattr(o, funcName)
AttributeError: 'Axes' object has no attribute 'set_xrange'

With

ax.set_xlim(left = args.avg_window)

I get this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 162, in _run_module_as_main
    "__main__", fname, loader, pkg_name)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/runpy.py", line 72, in _run_code
    exec code in run_globals
  File "/Users/d3admin6/python_phpBB_scraper/analysis/liwc/plot_forum_emos.py", line 335, in <module>
    .format(args.xattr, args.yattr, window_str))
  File "/Users/d3admin6/python_phpBB_scraper/analysis/liwc/plot_forum_emos.py", line 256, in plot_emos_line
    ax.set_xbound(lower=args.avg_window)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/axes.py", line 2477, in set_xbound
    self.set_xlim(upper, lower, auto=None)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/axes.py", line 2553, in set_xlim
    left, right = mtransforms.nonsingular(left, right, increasing=False)
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/transforms.py", line 2567, in nonsingular
    if (not np.isfinite(vmin)) or (not np.isfinite(vmax)):
NotImplementedError: Not implemented for this type

What am I doing wrong, and what can I do to set the axes' bounds?

Solution

Your args.avg_window was stored as a string as returned by the user's input. You need to cast it to an int() before passing it as a matplotib axes limit argument, whichever way you want to do that.

set_xlim(int(args.avg_window), right=1)

Will set the minimum x-axis limit while leaving the maximum unchanged.