Plotting with seaborn using the matplotlib object-oriented interface
matplotlib, oop, python, seaborn
Solution
It depends a bit on which seaborn function you are using.
The plotting functions in seaborn are broadly divided into two types:
- "Axes-level" functions, including `regplot`, `boxplot`, `kdeplot`, and many others
- "Figure-level" functions, including `relplot`, `catplot`, `displot`, `pairplot`, `jointplot` and one or two others
The first group is identified by taking an explicit `ax` argument and returning an `Axes` object. As this suggests, you can use them in an "object oriented" style by passing your `Axes` to them:
f, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(2)
sns.regplot(x, y, ax=ax1)
sns.kdeplot(x, ax=ax2)
Axes-level functions will only draw onto an `Axes` and won't otherwise mess with the figure, so they can coexist perfectly happily in an object-oriented matplotlib script.
The second group of functions (Figure-level) are distinguished by the fact that the resulting plot can potentially include several Axes which are always organized in a "meaningful" way. That means that the functions need to have total control over the figure, so it isn't possible to plot, say, an `lmplot` onto one that already exists. Calling the function always initializes a figure and sets it up for the specific plot it's drawing.
However, once you've called `lmplot`, it will return an object of the type `FacetGrid`. This object has some methods for operating on the resulting plot that know a bit about the structure of the plot. It also exposes the underlying figure and array of axes at the `FacetGrid.fig` and `FacetGrid.axes` arguments. The `jointplot` function is very similar, but it uses a `JointGrid` object. So you can still use these functions in an object-oriented context, but all of your customization has to come after you've called the function.
Problem
I strongly prefer using `matplotlib` in OOP style: ``` f, axarr = plt.subplots(2, sharex=True) axarr[0].plot(...) axarr[1].plot(...) ``` This makes it easier to keep track of multiple figures and subplots. Question: How to use seaborn this way? Or, how to change this example to OOP style? How to tell `seaborn` plotting functions like `lmplot` which `Figure` or `Axes` it plots to?