Options

pytplot.options(name, option=None, value=None, opt_dict=None, quiet=False)

Set a large variety of options for individual plots.

Parameters:

• name (str or list[str]) – Names of tplot variables to be updated (wildcards accepted).

• option (str, optional) – The name of the option. See the options section below.

• value (str, int, float, list, optional) – The value of the option. See the options section below.

• opt_dict (dict, optional) – This can be a dictionary of option-value pairs. ‘option’ and ‘value’ will not be needed if this dictionary item is supplied.

• quiet (bool, optional) – If True, do not complain about unrecognized options.

Options

Many of the options are passed directly to matplotlib calls. For more extensive documentation about how to use these obtions, see the matplotlib documentation: https://matplotlib.org/stable/users/index.html

Note that many X-axis options are controlled at the level of the entire plot, rather than per-variable (since plots with multiple panels will share many X axis properties). See the tplot_options() routine for available per-plot options,

Panel Options	Value type	Notes
title	str	The title of the plot.
panel_size	flt	Number between (0,1], representing the percent size of the plot.
alpha	flt	Number between [0,1], gives the transparency of the plot lines.
line_width	flt	Sets plot line width.
line_style	str	scatter (to make scatter plots), or solid_line, dot, dash, dash_dot, dash_dot_dot_dot, long_dash.
border	bool	Turns on or off the top/right axes that would create a box around the plot.
var_label_format	str	The format of the tick labels if this variable is displayed as an alternative x axis. Default: {:.2f}
char_size	int	Defines character size for x/y/z titles and subtitles
right_axis	bool	If true,display a second Y axis on the right side of the plot.
second_axis_size	numeric	The size of the second axis to display
data_gap	numeric	If there is a gap in the data larger than this number in seconds, then insert
annotations	dict	A dictionary or list of dictionaries of matplotlib text annotation parameters (see annotate() routine)
visible	bool	If False, do not display lines for this variable.
nodata	bool	If True, do not display lines for this variable.
(cont)	(cont)	NaNs. This is similar to using the degap procedure on the variable, but is
(cont)	(cont)	applied at plot-time, and does not persist in the variable data.

Legend Options	Value type	Notes
legend_names	list	A list of strings that will be used to identify the legends.
legend_location	str	A string giving the location of the legend box.
legend_size	numeric	The font size of the legend names
legend_shadow	bool	Turns on or off drop shadows on the legend box
legend_title	str	The title to display on the legend
legend_titlesize	numeric	The font size of the legend title
legend_color	[str]	The color of the legend names
legend_edgecolor	str	The border color of the legend box
legend_facecolor	str	The background color of the legend box
legend_markerfirst	boolean	Put the marker and line to the left of the label in the legend
legend_markerscale	numeric	The scale size of markers displayed in the legend
legend_linewidth	numeric	The width of the lines displayed in the legend

X Axis Options	Value type	Notes
xtitle	str	The title to be placed under the x axis.
xsubtitle	str	The subtitle to be placed under the x axis
xtitle_color	str	The color of the x axis title.
xtick_length	numeric	The length of the x tick marks
xtick_width	numeric	The width of the x tick marks
xtick_color	str	The color of the x tick marks
xtick_labelcolor	str	The color of the x tick marks
xtick_direction	str	The direction of the x tick marks (in, out, inout)

Y Axis Options	Value type	Notes
y_range	flt/list	Two numbers that give the y axis range of the plot. If a third argument is present, set linear or log scaling accordingly.
ylog	bool	True sets the y axis to log scale, False reverts.
ytitle	str	Title shown on the y axis. Use backslash for new lines.
ysubtitle	str	Subtitle shown on the y axis.
ytitle_color	str	The color of the y axis title.
ytick_length	numeric	The length of the Y tick marks
ytick_width	numeric	The width of the Y tick marks
ytick_color	str	The color of the Y tick marks
ytick_labelcolor	str	The color of the Y tick marks
ytick_direction	str	The direction of the Y tick marks (in, out, inout)
y_major_ticks	[numeric]	A list of values that will be used to set the major ticks on the Y axis.
y_minor_tick_interval	numeric	The interval between minor ticks on the Y axis.

Error Bar Options	Value type	Notes
errorevery	numeric	Interval at which to show error bars
capsize	numeric	The size of error bar caps
ecolor	str	The color of the error bar lines
elinewidth	numeric	The width of the error bar lines

Marker/Symbol Options	Value type	Notes
marker_size	numeric	The size of the markers displayed in the plot
markevery	numeric	Interval at which to show markers
symbols	bool	If True, display as a scatter plot (no lines)

Z / Specplot Options	Value type	Notes
spec	bool	Display this variable as a spectrogram.
colormap	str/list	Color map to use for specplots https://matplotlib.org/examples/color/colormaps_reference.html.
z_range	flt/list	Two numbers that give the z axis range of the plot. If a third argument is present, set linear or log scaling accordingly.
zlog	int	True sets the z axis to log scale, False reverts (spectrograms only).
ztitle	str	Title shown on the z axis. Spec plots only. Use backslash for new lines.
zsubtitle	str	Subtitle shown on the z axis. Spec plots only.
ztitle_color	str	The color of the z axis title.
x_interp	bool	If true, perform smoothing of spectrograms in the X direction
x_interp_points	numeric	Number of interpolation points to use in the X direction
y_interp	bool	If true, perform smoothing of spectrograms in the Y direction
y_interp_points	numeric	Number of interpolation points to use in the Y direction
xrange_slice	flt/list	Two numbers that give the x axis range of spectrogram slicing plots.
yrange_slice	flt/list	Two numbers that give the y axis range of spectrogram slicing plots.
xlog_slice	bool	Sets x axis on slice plot to log scale if True.
ylog_slice	bool	Sets y axis on slice plot to log scale if True.
spec_dim_to_plot	int/str	If variable has more than two dimensions, this sets which dimension the “v”
(cont)	(cont)	variable will display on the y axis in spectrogram plots.
(cont)	(cont)	All other dimensions are summed into this one, unless “spec_slices_to_use”
(cont)	(cont)	is also set for this variable.
spec_slices_to_use	str	Must be a dictionary of coordinate:values. If a variable has more than two
(cont)	(cont)	dimensions, spectrogram plots will plot values at that particular slice of
(cont)	(cont)	that dimension. See examples for how it works.

Many options have synonyms or variant spellings that are commonly used. The first column gives the name that is used throughout the plotting code. The second column gives the synonyms that are accepted.

Canonical name	Accepted synonyms
title	name
line_color	color, colors, col, cols, line_colors
legend_names	labels, legend_name, legend_label, legend_labels
legend_location	labels_location, legends_location, label_location, labels_location
legend_size	labels_size, label_size
legend_shadow	labels_shadow. label_shadow
legend_title	label_title, labels_title
legend_titlesize	lable_titlesize, labels_titlesize
legend_color	legends_color, label_color, labels_color
legend_edgecolor	label_edgecolor, labels_edgecolor
legend_facecolor	label_facecolor, labels_facecolor
legend_markerfirst	label_markerfirst, labels_markerfirst
legend_markerscale	label_markerscale, labels_markerscale
legend_linewidth	label_linewidth, labels_linewidth
legend_frameon	label_frameon, labels_frameon
legend_ncols	label_ncols, labels_ncols
line_style_name	line_style, linestyle
char_size	charsize
marker	markers
marker_size	markersize
markevery	markerevery mark_every marker_every
symbol	symbols
line_width	thick
y_range	yrange
z_range	zrange
data_gap	datagap
spec_dim_to_plot	spec_plot_dim
var_label_format	varlabel_format
annotations	annotation

rtype:

None

Examples

>>> # Change the y range of Variable1
>>> import pyspedas
>>> x_data = [1,2,3,4,5]
>>> y_data = [1,2,3,4,5]
>>> pyspedas.store_data("Variable1", data={'x':x_data, 'y':y_data})
>>> pyspedas.options('Variable1', 'yrange', [2,4])

>>> # Change Variable1 to use a log scale
>>> pyspedas.options('Variable1', 'ylog', 1)
>>> pyspedas.tplot('Variable1')

>>> # Multi-dimensional variable
>>> y_data = np.random.rand(5, 4, 3)
>>> v1_data = [0, 1, 3, 4]
>>> v2_data = [1, 2, 3]
>>> pyspedas.store_data("Variable2", data={'x': x_data, 'y': y_data, 'v1': v1_data, 'v2': v2_data})
>>> # Set the spectrogram plots to show dimension 'v2' at slice 'v1' = 0
>>> pyspedas.options('Variable2', 'spec', 1)
>>> pyspedas.options("Variable2", "spec_dim_to_plot", 'v2')
>>> pyspedas.options("Variable2", "spec_slices_to_use", {'v1': 0})
>>> pyspedas.tplot('Variable2')