Connecting two points in a 3D scatter plot in Python and matplotlib

Zambi picture Zambi · May 13, 2012 · Viewed 22.9k times · Source

In the code below, how do I create lines connecting each pair of scatter plots (i.e. linking the green circle to the yellow arrowhead) created by the two lines of code towards the end just before the .show() instruction?

import matplotlib.pyplot
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D

dates       = [20020514, 20020515, 20020516, 20020517, 20020520]
highs       = [1135, 1158, 1152, 1158, 1163]
lows        = [1257, 1253, 1259, 1264, 1252]
upperLimits = [1125.0, 1125.0, 1093.75, 1125.0, 1125.0]
lowerLimits = [1250.0, 1250.0, 1156.25, 1250.0, 1250.0]

zaxisvalues0= [0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
zaxisvalues1= [1, 1, 1, 1, 1]
zaxisvalues2= [2, 2, 2, 2, 2]

fig = matplotlib.pyplot.figure()
ax  = fig.add_subplot(111, projection = '3d')

ax.plot(dates, zaxisvalues1, lowerLimits, color = 'b')
ax.plot(dates, zaxisvalues2, upperLimits, color = 'r')

ax.scatter(dates, zaxisvalues0, highs, color = 'g', marker = "o")
ax.scatter(dates, zaxisvalues0, lows, color = 'y', marker = "^")

matplotlib.pyplot.show()

Answer

Mark picture Mark · May 13, 2012

Draw a line segment between those points:

import matplotlib.pyplot
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D

dates       = [20020514, 20020515, 20020516, 20020517, 20020520]
highs       = [1135, 1158, 1152, 1158, 1163]
lows        = [1257, 1253, 1259, 1264, 1252]
upperLimits = [1125.0, 1125.0, 1093.75, 1125.0, 1125.0]
lowerLimits = [1250.0, 1250.0, 1156.25, 1250.0, 1250.0]

zaxisvalues0= [0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
zaxisvalues1= [1, 1, 1, 1, 1]
zaxisvalues2= [2, 2, 2, 2, 2]

fig = matplotlib.pyplot.figure()
ax  = fig.add_subplot(111, projection = '3d')

ax.plot(dates, zaxisvalues1, lowerLimits, color = 'b')
ax.plot(dates, zaxisvalues2, upperLimits, color = 'r')

for i,j,k,h in zip(dates,zaxisvalues0,lows,highs):
    ax.plot([i,i],[j,j],[k,h],color = 'g')

ax.scatter(dates, zaxisvalues0, highs, color = 'g', marker = "o")
ax.scatter(dates, zaxisvalues0, lows, color = 'y', marker = "^")

matplotlib.pyplot.show()

Produces:

enter image description here