pyplot axes labels for subplots

Question

I have the following plot:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig2 = plt.figure()
ax3 = fig2.add_subplot(2,1,1)
ax4 = fig2.add_subplot(2,1,2)
ax4.loglog(x1, y1)
ax3.loglog(x2, y2)
ax3.set_ylabel('hello')

I want to be able to create axes labels and titles not just for each of the two subplots, but also common labels that span both subplots. For example, since both plots have identical axes, I only need one set of x and y- axes labels. I do want different titles for each subplot though.

I tried a few things but none of them worked right

Answer 1

You can create a big subplot that covers the two subplots and then set the common labels.

import random
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x = range(1, 101)
y1 = [random.randint(1, 100) for _ in range(len(x))]
y2 = [random.randint(1, 100) for _ in range(len(x))]

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)    # The big subplot
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(211)
ax2 = fig.add_subplot(212)

# Turn off axis lines and ticks of the big subplot
ax.spines['top'].set_color('none')
ax.spines['bottom'].set_color('none')
ax.spines['left'].set_color('none')
ax.spines['right'].set_color('none')
ax.tick_params(labelcolor='w', top=False, bottom=False, left=False, right=False)

ax1.loglog(x, y1)
ax2.loglog(x, y2)

# Set common labels
ax.set_xlabel('common xlabel')
ax.set_ylabel('common ylabel')

ax1.set_title('ax1 title')
ax2.set_title('ax2 title')

plt.savefig('common_labels.png', dpi=300)

Another way is using fig.text() to set the locations of the common labels directly.

import random
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x = range(1, 101)
y1 = [random.randint(1, 100) for _ in range(len(x))]
y2 = [random.randint(1, 100) for _ in range(len(x))]

fig = plt.figure()
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(211)
ax2 = fig.add_subplot(212)

ax1.loglog(x, y1)
ax2.loglog(x, y2)

# Set common labels
fig.text(0.5, 0.04, 'common xlabel', ha='center', va='center')
fig.text(0.06, 0.5, 'common ylabel', ha='center', va='center', rotation='vertical')

ax1.set_title('ax1 title')
ax2.set_title('ax2 title')

plt.savefig('common_labels_text.png', dpi=300)