Changing the xlim by date in Matplotlib

Question

I am trying to make a visually appealing graph in Python. I was using Randal Olson's example http://www.randalolson.com/2014/06/28/how-to-make-beautiful-data-visualizations-in-python-with-matplotlib/ here and trying to make some adjustments.

My data is simple,

dispute_percentage
Out[34]: 

2015-08-11    0.017647
2015-08-12    0.004525
2015-08-13    0.006024
2015-08-14    0.000000
2015-08-15    0.000000
2015-08-17    0.000000

The problem is that the data starts loading at Feb 2015, and I want to start displaying at April 2015.

Here is my code

from __future__ import division
from collections import OrderedDict
import pandas as pd
from collections import Counter
from pylab import * 
import datetime as datetime 
dispute_percentage.plot(kind = 'line')
plt.xlabel('Date')
plt.ylabel('Percent')
plt.title('Percent Disputes In FY2015')

# Remove the plot frame lines. They are unnecessary chartjunk.    
ax = plt.subplot(111)    
ax.spines["top"].set_visible(False)    
ax.spines["bottom"].set_visible(False)    
ax.spines["right"].set_visible(False)    
ax.spines["left"].set_visible(False) 


# Ensure that the axis ticks only show up on the bottom and left of the plot.    
# Ticks on the right and top of the plot are generally unnecessary chartjunk.    
ax.get_xaxis().tick_bottom()    
#ax.get_yaxis().tick_left()    

# Limit the range of the plot to only where the data is.    
# Avoid unnecessary whitespace.   
datenow = datetime.datetime.now
dstart = datetime(2015,4,1)
print datenow 
plt.ylim(0, .14)    
plt.xlim(dstart, datenow)    

The xlim is what I am struggling with. I'm getting the error

File "C:/Mypath/name.py", line 52, in <module>
    dstart = datetime(2015,4,1)

TypeError: 'module' object is not callable

If anyone could help with this that would be great. Also any input on trying to make it prettier would also be appreciated.

Answer 1

You need to call datetime.datetime.now() with the parentheses on the end, and for dstart, you need to use the datetime method of the datetime module: datetime.datetime(2015,4,1)

import datetime

datenow = datetime.datetime.now()
dstart = datetime.datetime(2015,4,1)

EDIT: To set the xticks to the first of the month (thanks to @AndyKubiak):

firsts=[]
for i in range(dstart.month, datenow.month+1):
    firsts.append(datetime.datetime(2015,i,1)) 
plt.xticks(firsts)