How to embed inset plots generated with seaborn lmplot?

Question

In seaborn sns.lmplot returns FacetGrid object. I would like to plot an inset. Here is a self contained "working" example:

from io import StringIO
import pandas as pd
%matplotlib inline
df_string='time\tsex\tage\tval1\tval2\n1\tM\t18\t0.285837375\t4.402793733\n2\tM\t18\t0.234239365\t2.987464305\n3\tM\t18\t0.820418465\t3.23991295\n4\tM\t18\t0.826027695\t9.707366329\n5\tM\t18\t0.625449525\t2.971235344\n6\tM\t18\t0.485980081\t5.517575471\n7\tM\t18\t0.136163546\t3.620177216\n8\tM\t18\t0.784944053\t5.116294718\n9\tM\t18\t0.981526403\t6.348155198\n10\tM\t18\t0.822237037\t4.682176522\n1\tF\t22\t0.104339381\t5.434133736\n2\tF\t22\t0.788797127\t0.843869877\n3\tF\t22\t0.997986894\t8.765048753\n4\tF\t22\t0.51167857\t2.054679646\n5\tF\t22\t0.328416139\t6.581617426\n6\tF\t22\t0.317804112\t1.584234393\n7\tF\t22\t0.489944956\t8.564257177\n8\tF\t22\t0.207348127\t1.346020575\n9\tF\t22\t0.727347344\t7.487993859\n10\tF\t22\t0.252917798\t8.822904862\n11\tF\t22\t0.690106636\t6.728470474\n12\tF\t22\t0.508078197\t2.489437246\n'
df = pd.read_csv(StringIO(df_string), sep='\t')


# running a moving average
df_tmp = df.groupby(['sex', 'age']).rolling(min_periods=1, window=3, center=True).mean()

df_tmp.plot()

import seaborn as sns
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pylab as plt
from mpl_toolkits.axes_grid.inset_locator import inset_axes, mark_inset

df_to_plot = df_tmp.reset_index()
g = sns.lmplot(x='time',y='val1',hue="sex",x_estimator=np.mean,height=10, aspect=1,
                   data=df_to_plot, logx= True, legend_out=True, truncate=True)

g.axes[0][0].xaxis.set_label_text('t [sec]')
g.set(yscale="log")   

ax = g.axes[0][0]
axins = inset_axes(ax, "30%", "40%")
g_inset = sns.lmplot(x='time',y='val1',hue="sex",x_estimator=np.mean, data=df_to_plot, legend_out=False)

But I get the following two plots instead of embedding the second one in the inset plot:

In the end I would like to have code that knows where there is a clear white space and put the inset cleanly inside it, something like this example by Christian :

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FWIW, my toy set data looks like this in a tabular format:

Answer 1

Since FacetGrid produces its own figure, lmplot cannot be used inside an axes. You will need to plot as many regplot s as you need instead.

from io import StringIO
import pandas as pd

df_string="""time\tsex\tage\tval1\tval2\n1\tM\t18\t0.285837375\t4.402793733\n
2\tM\t18\t0.234239365\t2.987464305\n
3\tM\t18\t0.820418465\t3.23991295\n
4\tM\t18\t0.826027695\t9.707366329\n
5\tM\t18\t0.625449525\t2.971235344\n
6\tM\t18\t0.485980081\t5.517575471\n
7\tM\t18\t0.136163546\t3.620177216\n
8\tM\t18\t0.784944053\t5.116294718\n
9\tM\t18\t0.981526403\t6.348155198\n
10\tM\t18\t0.822237037\t4.682176522\n
1\tF\t22\t0.104339381\t5.434133736\n
2\tF\t22\t0.788797127\t0.843869877\n
3\tF\t22\t0.997986894\t8.765048753\n
4\tF\t22\t0.51167857\t2.054679646\n
5\tF\t22\t0.328416139\t6.581617426\n
6\tF\t22\t0.317804112\t1.584234393\n
7\tF\t22\t0.489944956\t8.564257177\n
8\tF\t22\t0.207348127\t1.346020575\n
9\tF\t22\t0.727347344\t7.487993859\n
10\tF\t22\t0.252917798\t8.822904862\n
11\tF\t22\t0.690106636\t6.728470474\n
12\tF\t22\t0.508078197\t2.489437246\n"""
df = pd.read_csv(StringIO(df_string), sep='\t')


import seaborn as sns
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pylab as plt
from mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1.inset_locator import inset_axes

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

for (n, grp) in df.groupby("sex"):
    sns.regplot(x='time',y='val1', x_estimator=np.mean,
                   data=grp, logx= True, truncate=True)

ax.xaxis.set_label_text('t [sec]')
ax.set(yscale="log")   

axins = inset_axes(ax,  "30%", "40%" ,loc="lower right", borderpad=3)

for (n, grp) in df.groupby("sex"):
    sns.regplot(x='time',y='val1', x_estimator=np.mean,
                   data=grp, truncate=True, ax=axins)


plt.show()