Python variable names through a for loop

Question

In Matplotlib, I set an axis label using: axes1.set_ylabel('....')

If I have three axes, is there a way to use a loop to do the following?:

for i in range(3):
    axes[i].set_ylabel('AVG')

Of course, this is not correct syntax as I'm not using a list/dictionary. However, does anyone have any recommendations?

Answer 1

Here's what I use for multiple vertical-only axes:

f, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=3, ncols=1, figsize=(12,5))
try:
    iter(axes)       # Check if axes can be iterated over
except TypeError:
    axes = [axes]    # If not, then make it into a list

for ax in axes:
    ax.plot(x, y)
    ax.set_ylabel('AVG')

Usually I even change the figure size depending on how many rows I have. Doing this gets a little complicated if you have ncols > 1 . Therefore this is for vertical-only plots.

Answer 2

Put your axes in a list:

my_axes = []
for n in range(1, 4):
    my_axes.append(fig.add_subplot(1, 3, n))
for ax in my_axes:
     ax.set_ylabel('AVG')