Show confidence limits and prediction limits in scatter plot

Question

I have two arrays of data as hight and weight:

import numpy as np, matplotlib.pyplot as plt

heights = np.array([50,52,53,54,58,60,62,64,66,67,68,70,72,74,76,55,50,45,65])
weights = np.array([25,50,55,75,80,85,50,65,85,55,45,45,50,75,95,65,50,40,45])

plt.plot(heights,weights,'bo')
plt.show()

I want to produce the plot similiar to this:

http://www.sas.com/en_us/software/analytics/stat.html#m=screenshot6

Any ideas is appreciated.

Answer 1

Here's what I put together. I tried to closely emulate your screenshot.

Given

Some detailed helper functions for plotting confidence intervals.

import numpy as np
import scipy as sp
import scipy.stats as stats
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt


%matplotlib inline


def plot_ci_manual(t, s_err, n, x, x2, y2, ax=None):
    """Return an axes of confidence bands using a simple approach.

    Notes
    -----
    .. math:: \left| \: \hat{\mu}_{y|x0} - \mu_{y|x0} \: \right| \; \leq \; T_{n-2}^{.975} \; \hat{\sigma} \; \sqrt{\frac{1}{n}+\frac{(x_0-\bar{x})^2}{\sum_{i=1}^n{(x_i-\bar{x})^2}}}
    .. math:: \hat{\sigma} = \sqrt{\sum_{i=1}^n{\frac{(y_i-\hat{y})^2}{n-2}}}

    References
    ----------
    .. [1] M. Duarte.  "Curve fitting," Jupyter Notebook.
       http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/demotu/BMC/blob/master/notebooks/CurveFitting.ipynb

    """
    if ax is None:
        ax = plt.gca()

    ci = t * s_err * np.sqrt(1/n + (x2 - np.mean(x))**2 / np.sum((x - np.mean(x))**2))
    ax.fill_between(x2, y2 + ci, y2 - ci, color="#b9cfe7", edgecolor="")

    return ax


def plot_ci_bootstrap(xs, ys, resid, nboot=500, ax=None):
    """Return an axes of confidence bands using a bootstrap approach.

    Notes
    -----
    The bootstrap approach iteratively resampling residuals.
    It plots `nboot` number of straight lines and outlines the shape of a band.
    The density of overlapping lines indicates improved confidence.

    Returns
    -------
    ax : axes
        - Cluster of lines
        - Upper and Lower bounds (high and low) (optional)  Note: sensitive to outliers

    References
    ----------
    .. [1] J. Stults. "Visualizing Confidence Intervals", Various Consequences.
       http://www.variousconsequences.com/2010/02/visualizing-confidence-intervals.html

    """ 
    if ax is None:
        ax = plt.gca()

    bootindex = sp.random.randint

    for _ in range(nboot):
        resamp_resid = resid[bootindex(0, len(resid) - 1, len(resid))]
        # Make coeffs of for polys
        pc = sp.polyfit(xs, ys + resamp_resid, 1)                   
        # Plot bootstrap cluster
        ax.plot(xs, sp.polyval(pc, xs), "b-", linewidth=2, alpha=3.0 / float(nboot))

    return ax

Code

# Computations ----------------------------------------------------------------
# Raw Data
heights = np.array([50,52,53,54,58,60,62,64,66,67,68,70,72,74,76,55,50,45,65])
weights = np.array([25,50,55,75,80,85,50,65,85,55,45,45,50,75,95,65,50,40,45])

x = heights
y = weights

# Modeling with Numpy
def equation(a, b):
    """Return a 1D polynomial."""
    return np.polyval(a, b) 

p, cov = np.polyfit(x, y, 1, cov=True)                     # parameters and covariance from of the fit of 1-D polynom.
y_model = equation(p, x)                                   # model using the fit parameters; NOTE: parameters here are coefficients

# Statistics
n = weights.size                                           # number of observations
m = p.size                                                 # number of parameters
dof = n - m                                                # degrees of freedom
t = stats.t.ppf(0.975, n - m)                              # used for CI and PI bands

# Estimates of Error in Data/Model
resid = y - y_model                           
chi2 = np.sum((resid / y_model)**2)                        # chi-squared; estimates error in data
chi2_red = chi2 / dof                                      # reduced chi-squared; measures goodness of fit
s_err = np.sqrt(np.sum(resid**2) / dof)                    # standard deviation of the error


# Plotting --------------------------------------------------------------------
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(8, 6))

# Data
ax.plot(
    x, y, "o", color="#b9cfe7", markersize=8, 
    markeredgewidth=1, markeredgecolor="b", markerfacecolor="None"
)

# Fit
ax.plot(x, y_model, "-", color="0.1", linewidth=1.5, alpha=0.5, label="Fit")  

x2 = np.linspace(np.min(x), np.max(x), 100)
y2 = equation(p, x2)

# Confidence Interval (select one)
plot_ci_manual(t, s_err, n, x, x2, y2, ax=ax)
#plot_ci_bootstrap(x, y, resid, ax=ax)

# Prediction Interval
pi = t * s_err * np.sqrt(1 + 1/n + (x2 - np.mean(x))**2 / np.sum((x - np.mean(x))**2))   
ax.fill_between(x2, y2 + pi, y2 - pi, color="None", linestyle="--")
ax.plot(x2, y2 - pi, "--", color="0.5", label="95% Prediction Limits")
ax.plot(x2, y2 + pi, "--", color="0.5")


# Figure Modifications --------------------------------------------------------
# Borders
ax.spines["top"].set_color("0.5")
ax.spines["bottom"].set_color("0.5")
ax.spines["left"].set_color("0.5")
ax.spines["right"].set_color("0.5")
ax.get_xaxis().set_tick_params(direction="out")
ax.get_yaxis().set_tick_params(direction="out")
ax.xaxis.tick_bottom()
ax.yaxis.tick_left() 

# Labels
plt.title("Fit Plot for Weight", fontsize="14", fontweight="bold")
plt.xlabel("Height")
plt.ylabel("Weight")
plt.xlim(np.min(x) - 1, np.max(x) + 1)

# Custom legend
handles, labels = ax.get_legend_handles_labels()
display = (0, 1)
anyArtist = plt.Line2D((0, 1), (0, 0), color="#b9cfe7")    # create custom artists
legend = plt.legend(
    [handle for i, handle in enumerate(handles) if i in display] + [anyArtist],
    [label for i, label in enumerate(labels) if i in display] + ["95% Confidence Limits"],
    loc=9, bbox_to_anchor=(0, -0.21, 1., 0.102), ncol=3, mode="expand"
)  
frame = legend.get_frame().set_edgecolor("0.5")

# Save Figure
plt.tight_layout()
plt.savefig("filename.png", bbox_extra_artists=(legend,), bbox_inches="tight")

plt.show()

Output

Using plot_ci_manual():

Using plot_ci_bootstrap():

Hope this helps. Cheers.

---

Details

1. I believe that since the legend is outside the figure, it does not show up in matplotblib's popup window. It works fine in Jupyter using %maplotlib inline.

2. The primary confidence interval code (plot_ci_manual()) is adapted from another source producing a plot similar to the OP. You can select a more advanced technique called residual bootstrapping by uncommenting the second option plot_ci_bootstrap().

Updates

1. This post has been updated with revised code compatible with Python 3.
2. stats.t.ppf() accepts the lower tail probability. According to the following resources, t = sp.stats.t.ppf(0.95, n - m) was corrected to t = sp.stats.t.ppf(0.975, n - m) to reflect a two-sided 95% t-statistic (or one-sided 97.5% t-statistic).
   • original notebook and equation
   • statistics reference (thanks @Bonlenfum and @tryptofan)
   • verified t-value given dof=17
3. y2 was updated to respond more flexibly with a given model (@regeneration).
4. An abstracted equation function was added to wrap the model function. Non-linear regressions are possible although not demonstrated. Amend appropriate variables as needed (thanks @PJW).

See Also

• This post on plotting bands with statsmodels library.
• This tutorial on plotting bands and computing confidence intervals with uncertainties library (install with caution in a separate environment).