Matplotlib – Plot points with random values

Matplotlib – Plot Points with Random Values

In this tutorial, we’ll use Matplotlib in Python to create a plot with marker points with randomly generated values.

The following is a step by step tutorial on how to generate random points and visualize it using Matplotlib.

1. Import Necessary Libraries

Begin by importing the required libraries, including Matplotlib and NumPy for generating random data.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

2. Generate Random Data

Take a range for values for X axis, and an array of random values for the Y axis using NumPy’s numpy.random.rand() function.

# Number of data points
num_points = 50

# Generate random values for X and Y
x_values = np.random.rand(num_points)
y_values = np.random.rand(num_points)

3. Plot Points

Use Matplotlib’s plot() function to create a points plot with the generated random values.

# Plot the points
plt.plot(x_values, y_values, 'o')

4. Customize and Show the Plot

Customize the plot by adding a title, labels for the X and Y axes, and a legend. Finally, display the plot using show().

# Customize the plot
plt.title('Random Points Plot')
plt.xlabel('X-axis')
plt.ylabel('Y-axis')

# Show the plot
plt.show()

Complete Program

Let us write a program with all the steps mentioned above, to plot points with random values using Matplotlib, and run the program.

Python Program

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

# Number of data points
num_points = 50

# Generate random values for X and Y
x_values = np.random.rand(num_points)
y_values = np.random.rand(num_points)

# Plot the points
plt.plot(x_values, y_values, 'o')

# Customize the plot
plt.title('Random Points Plot')
plt.xlabel('X-axis')
plt.ylabel('Y-axis')

# Show the plot
plt.show()

Output

Summary

This tutorial demonstrated how to use Matplotlib to generate a points plot with random values. You can customize the number of data points and further enhance the plot to suit your specific requirements.