Plotting basics, and how not to mislead with a chart

Four chart types that cover most needs, and the axis tricks that turn a chart into a lie.

12 min read · Lesson 6 of 6 · Pro

The four charts you actually need

Chart	Answers
Bar	how do categories compare?
Line	how does something change over time?
Histogram	how is one numeric column distributed?
Scatter	do two numeric columns move together?

Pick by the question, not by which one looks nicer.

Setup

Python 3

import pandas as pd
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Agg")          # write to a file, no display needed
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

df = pd.DataFrame({
    "branch": ["CSE", "ECE", "MECH", "CIVIL"],
    "avg":    [78, 71, 65, 68],
    "count":  [120, 95, 60, 55],
})

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