Store mouse click event coordinates with matplotlib

Question

I am trying to implement a simple mouse click event in matplotlib. I wish to plot a figure then use the mouse to select the lower and upper limits for integration. So far I am able to print the coordinates to screen but not store them for later use in the program. I would also like to exit the connection to the figure after the second mouse click.

Below is the code which currently plots and then prints the coordinates.

My Question(s):

How can I store coordinates from the figure to list? i.e. click = [xpos, ypos]

Is it possible to get two sets of x coordinates in order to do a simple integration over that section of line?

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x = np.arange(-10,10)
y = x**2

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
ax.plot(x,y)

def onclick(event):
    global ix, iy
    ix, iy = event.xdata, event.ydata
    print 'x = %d, y = %d'%(
        ix, iy)

    global coords
    coords = [ix, iy]

    return coords


for i in xrange(0,1):

    cid = fig.canvas.mpl_connect('button_press_event', onclick)


plt.show()

Answer 1

mpl_connect needs to be called just once to connect the event to event handler. It will start listening to click event until you disconnect. And you can use

fig.canvas.mpl_disconnect(cid)

to disconnect the event hook.

What you want to do is something like:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x = np.arange(-10,10)
y = x**2

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
ax.plot(x,y)

coords = []

def onclick(event):
    global ix, iy
    ix, iy = event.xdata, event.ydata
    print 'x = %d, y = %d'%(
        ix, iy)

    global coords
    coords.append((ix, iy))

    if len(coords) == 2:
        fig.canvas.mpl_disconnect(cid)

    return coords
cid = fig.canvas.mpl_connect('button_press_event', onclick)