Grid lines configuration in Matplotlib - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Grid lines configuration

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple line chart to show sales over a week. You want to make the chart easier to read by adding grid lines.

🎯 Goal: Build a line chart using matplotlib with grid lines enabled and customized.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a list called days with the days of the week as strings.

Create a list called sales with sales numbers for each day.

Create a variable called grid_style to set the style of grid lines.

Plot the sales data using plt.plot().

Enable grid lines using plt.grid() with the style from grid_style.

Print the plot with grid lines visible.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Grid lines help people read charts more easily by showing reference lines behind the data points.

💼 Career

Data scientists and analysts often customize plots to make data clearer and more professional for reports and presentations.

1

Create sales data lists

Create a list called days with these exact values: 'Mon', 'Tue', 'Wed', 'Thu', 'Fri'. Create another list called sales with these exact values: 150, 200, 170, 220, 180.

Matplotlib

# Create the lists days and sales with the exact values
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets to create lists. Separate items with commas.

2

Set grid line style

Create a variable called grid_style and set it to the string '--' to represent dashed grid lines.

Matplotlib

days = ['Mon', 'Tue', 'Wed', 'Thu', 'Fri']
sales = [150, 200, 170, 220, 180]
# Create grid_style variable with value '--'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Assign the string '--' to the variable grid_style.

3

Plot sales and enable grid lines

Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt. Use plt.plot() with days and sales to create the line chart. Then enable grid lines using plt.grid() with the argument linestyle=grid_style.

Matplotlib

days = ['Mon', 'Tue', 'Wed', 'Thu', 'Fri']
sales = [150, 200, 170, 220, 180]
grid_style = '--'
# Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# Plot days vs sales
# Enable grid lines with linestyle=grid_style
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use import matplotlib.pyplot as plt to import. Use plt.plot() to plot. Use plt.grid(linestyle=grid_style) to add grid lines.

4

Display the plot

Use plt.show() to display the plot with the grid lines.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

days = ['Mon', 'Tue', 'Wed', 'Thu', 'Fri']
sales = [150, 200, 170, 220, 180]
grid_style = '--'

plt.plot(days, sales)
plt.grid(linestyle=grid_style)
# Display the plot
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Call plt.show() to open the plot window.