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pythonmatplotlibridgeline-plot

Make joyplot/ridgeline plot using dates as the x-axis

I am plotting a joyplot where the x-axis is a range of dates. However, joyplot only accepts dates arguments as numbers... As a result, the chart is plotted correctly, but the x-axis displays dates as their serial number, which is not very friendly to the end user.

I have tried various methods to format the axis (like this one: Set x axis labels for joyplot), but none worked so far!

How can I format the x-axis so that it displays dates in the 'mm.yyyy' format (eg.: 01.2022)?

I am using the following database to plot this example (saved as a .csv to my computer): https://www.boxofficemojo.com/genre/sg4242469121/?ref_=bo_gs_table_24

Table example (copy it and paste in a .csv file, naming it "Example", as in code below):

Title Release Date Date Distributor
Incredibles 2 Jun 15, 2018 43252 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
The Lion King Jul 19, 2019 43647 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Finding Dory Jun 17, 2016 42522 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Frozen II Nov 22, 2019 43770 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Shrek 2 May 19, 2004 38108 DreamWorks
Toy Story 4 Jun 21, 2019 43617 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Toy Story 3 Jun 18, 2010 40330 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Frozen Nov 22, 2013 41579 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
The Secret Life of Pets Jul 8, 2016 42552 Universal Pictures
Despicable Me 2 Jul 3, 2013 41456 Universal Pictures
Inside Out Jun 19, 2015 42156 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Zootopia Mar 4, 2016 42430 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Finding Nemo May 30, 2003 37742 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Minions Jul 10, 2015 42186 Universal Pictures
Shrek the Third May 18, 2007 39203 DreamWorks
The Lion King Jun 15, 1994 34486 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Up May 29, 2009 39934 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Minions: The Rise of Gru Jul 1, 2022 44743 Universal Pictures
The Grinch Nov 9, 2018 43405 Universal Pictures
Sing Dec 21, 2016 42705 Universal Pictures
Monsters University Jun 21, 2013 41426 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Code:

import joypy
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

%matplotlib inline

df = pd.read_csv(r'C:\Users\Downloads\Example.csv', delimiter=';') #replace file name and directory with your file, created from the table above
print(df.shape)
df.head()

fig, ax = joypy.joyplot(df, 
                        by = 'Distributor', 
                        column='Date', 
                        colormap=cm.autumn, 
                        figsize = (10,6),
                        fade = True)

Output plot:

enter image description here

Solution

  • First, please accept that the x-axis tick values in my answer may not be correct; it is unclear what the value obtained by ax[-1].get_xticks() indicates. Assuming it represents days, I can change it to a date in the following way: since the time series in maplotlib is Gregorian standard, I convert it from a number to a date.

    df['Release Date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['Release Date'], format='%b %d, %Y')

import joypy
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib import cm
import matplotlib.dates as mdates
%matplotlib inline

fig, ax = joypy.joyplot(df, 
                        by = 'Distributor', 
                        column='Date', 
                        colormap=cm.autumn, 
                        figsize = (10,6),
                        xrot=45,
                        fade = True)

print(ax[-1].get_xticks())
new_dates = [mdates.num2date(x +  mdates.date2num(np.datetime64('1900-01-01'))) for x in ax[-1].get_xticks()]
new_dates = [t.strftime('%b-%Y') for t in new_dates]
ax[-1].set_xticklabels(new_dates)

fig.show()

    enter image description here