How to connect scatterplot points with line using matplotlib

Question

I have two lists, dates and values. I want to plot them using matplotlib. The following creates a scatter plot of my data. ``` import matplotlib.pyplot as plt plt.scatter(dates,values) plt.show() ``` `plt.plot(dates, values)` creates a line graph. But what I really want is a scatterplot where the points are connected by a line. Similar to in R: ``` plot(dates, values) lines(dates, value, type="l") ``` which gives me a scatterplot of points overlaid with a line connecting the points. How do I do this in python?

Accepted Answer

I think @Evert has the right answer:

```
plt.scatter(dates,values)
plt.plot(dates, values)
plt.show()
```

Which is pretty much the same as

```
plt.plot(dates, values, '-o')
plt.show()
```

You can replace `-o` with another suitable format string as described in the documentation. You can also split the choices of line and marker styles using the `linestyle=` and `marker=` keyword arguments.

How to connect scatterplot points with line using matplotlib

Solution

Problem