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pandasmatplotlibplotareastacked

How can I change the filled color of stacked area plot in DataFrame?

I want to change the filled color in the stacked area plots drawn with Pandas.Dataframe.

import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.rand(10, 4), columns=['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'])
ax = df.plot.area(linewidth=0);

The area plot example

Now I guess that the instance return by the plot function offers the access to modifying the attributes like colors.

But the axes classes are too complicated to learn fast. And I failed to find similar questions in the Stack Overflow.

So can any master do me a favor?

Solution

  • The API of matplotlib is really complex, but here artist Module gives a very plain illustration. For the bar/barh plots, the attributes can be visited and modified by .patches, but for the area plot they need to be with .collections.

    To achieve the specific modification, use codes like this.

    import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.rand(10, 4), columns=['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'])
ax = df.plot.area(linewidth=0);

for collection in ax.collections:
    collection.set_facecolor('#888888')

highlight = 0
ax.collections[highlight].set_facecolor('#aa3333')

    Other methods of the collections can be found by run 

    dir(ax.collections[highlight])