How do I get multiple subplots in matplotlib?

There are several ways to do it. The subplots method creates the figure along with the subplots that are then stored in the ax array. For example:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x = range(10)
y = range(10)

fig, ax = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2)

for row in ax:
    for col in row:
        col.plot(x, y)

plt.show()

However, something like this will also work, it's not so "clean" though since you are creating a figure with subplots and then add on top of them:

fig = plt.figure()

plt.subplot(2, 2, 1)
plt.plot(x, y)

plt.subplot(2, 2, 2)
plt.plot(x, y)

plt.subplot(2, 2, 3)
plt.plot(x, y)

plt.subplot(2, 2, 4)
plt.plot(x, y)

plt.show()

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig, ax = plt.subplots(2, 2)

ax[0, 0].plot(range(10), 'r') #row=0, col=0
ax[1, 0].plot(range(10), 'b') #row=1, col=0
ax[0, 1].plot(range(10), 'g') #row=0, col=1
ax[1, 1].plot(range(10), 'k') #row=1, col=1
plt.show()

• You can also unpack the axes in the subplots call

• And set whether you want to share the x and y axes between the subplots

Like this:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, ((ax1, ax2), (ax3, ax4)) = plt.subplots(nrows=2, ncols=2, sharex=True, sharey=True)
ax1.plot(range(10), 'r')
ax2.plot(range(10), 'b')
ax3.plot(range(10), 'g')
ax4.plot(range(10), 'k')
plt.show()