Cannot plot inline with ipython notebook

Question

I'm playing with ipython notebook and I got a problem.

This code %matplotlib inline helped me to plot inline with the code below.

%matplotlib inline 
ax1= plt.subplot(2,1,1)
ax1.plot(df.Close,label="sp500")
ax1.plot(ma,label='50MA')
plt.legend()

ax2=plt.subplot(2,1,2, sharex = ax1)
ax2.plot(df['H-L'],label='H-L')
plt.legend()

However, I cannot plot inline with the code below.

%matplotlib inline

def single_stock(stock_name):
    df = pd.read_csv('stocks_date_modified.csv',index_col='time',parse_dates=True)
    df = df[df.type == stock_name.lower()]
    _500MA= pd.rolling_mean(df['value'],500)
    ax1= plt.subplot(2,1,1)
    df['close'].plot(label='Price')
    plt.legend()

    ax2= plt.subplot(2,1,2, sharex = ax1)
    _500MA.plot(label='500MA')
    plt.legend()

    plt.show()

single_stock('bac')

I got an error message saying

UsageError: unrecognized arguments: #this code is to plot inline the notebook

Without the %matplotlib inline I don't have problem showing the plots but in the popup window.

Could someone help me to solve this?

Answer 1

If anybody else encounters this error, it seems that you cannot have inline comments on lines that call IPython Magics:

In [9]: %matplotlib inline # allows matplotlib to be inline

UsageError: unrecognized arguments: # allows matplotlib to be inline

Without the comment, it works just fine:

In [9]: %matplotlib inline

But yes, loading matplotlib inline at startup with ipython notebook --matplotlib=inline is probably a wise move anyway.

Answer 2

You can run your notebook with:

ipython notebook --matplotlib=inline

And to avoid repetitive typing on everytime you use notebook, you can create a notebook profile READ HERE . You can also read this relevant SO Answer with regards to how to write your configuration file.

Or if you're using some sort of shortcut key to invoke your notebook (like in Mac/Linux), you can bind the key combinations to run the command above.