Translating between the Axes interface and the pyplot interface

You may find either interface in existing code, and unfortunately sometimes even

mixtures. This section describes the patterns for specific operations in both

interfaces and how to translate from one to the other.

- Creating figures is the same for both interfaces: Use the respective `.pyplot`

functions ``plt.figure()``, ``plt.subplots()``, ``plt.subplot_mosaic()``.

For the Axes interface, you typically store the created Figure (and possibly

Axes) in variables for later use. When using the pyplot interface, these

values are typically not stored. Example:

- Axes: ``fig, ax = plt.subplots()``

- pyplot: ``plt.subplots()``

- "Plotting" functions, i.e. functions that add data, are named the same and

have identical parameters on the Axes and in pyplot. Example:

- Axes: ``ax.plot(x, y)``

- pyplot: ``plt.plot(x, y)``

- Functions that retrieve properties are named like the property in pyplot

and are prefixed with ``get_`` on the Axes. Example:

- Axes: ``label = ax.get_xlabel()``

- pyplot: ``label = plt.xlabel()``

- Functions that set properties like the property in pyplot and are prefixed with

``set_`` on the Axes. Example:

- Axes: ``ax.set_xlabel("time")``

- pyplot: ``plt.xlabel("time")``

Here is a short summary of the examples again as a side-by-side comparison:

Operation Axes interface pyplot interface

Creating figures ``fig, ax = plt.subplots()`` ``plt.subplots()``

Plotting data ``ax.plot(x, y)`` ``plt.plot(x, y)``

Getting properties ``label = ax.get_xlabel()`` ``label = plt.xlabel()``

Setting properties ``ax.set_xlabel("time")`` ``plt.xlabel("time")``