How plot datetime.time in matplotlib?

Question

I have two arrays I want to display : ``` x : [datetime.time(0, 17, 47, 782000), ...ect y : [1712, 2002, ...ect ``` I'm trying to convert x to the format used by matplotlib but it never woks ``` x = [matplotlib.dates.date2num(i) for i in x] ``` But I get this error ``` AttributeError: 'datetime.time' object has no attribute 'toordinal' ``` My problem is linked with the time format : The raw info is like this : ``` 00:04:49.251 ``` Then I convert it ``` datetime.datetime.strptime(string, "%H:%M:%S.%f").time() ``` So the type is ``` <type 'datetime.time'> ```

Accepted Answer

The problem here is that you specify `datetime.time` objects which only have the information on the time of day. As `Emanuele Paolini` points out in their comment, `matplotlib` expects to have `datetime.datetime` objects which carry the date in addition to the time.

You may carry out the conversion:

```
import datetime

my_day = datetime.date(2014, 7, 15)
x_dt = [ datetime.datetime.combine(my_day, t) for t in x ]
```

Now you may use `x_dt` with the `plot` function.

The downside of this approach is that you may get the date somewhere on your plot, but that can be tackled by changing the label settings.

How plot datetime.time in matplotlib?

Solution

Problem