Line styles (solid, dashed, dotted) in Matplotlib - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Line styles (solid, dashed, dotted)

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple line chart to compare three different line styles: solid, dashed, and dotted. This is useful when you want to make your charts clearer and more visually appealing.

🎯 Goal: Build a matplotlib plot that shows three lines with different line styles: solid, dashed, and dotted.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a list of x values from 0 to 4

Create three lists of y values for each line

Use matplotlib to plot three lines with line styles: solid, dashed, and dotted

Add a legend to identify each line style

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Line styles help distinguish different data series in charts, making reports and presentations clearer.

💼 Career

Data scientists and analysts use line styles to improve data visualization clarity and communicate insights effectively.

1

Create the data lists

Create a list called x with values [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]. Create three lists called y1, y2, and y3 with values [0, 1, 4, 9, 16], [0, 1, 2, 3, 4], and [0, 1, 8, 27, 64] respectively.

Matplotlib

# Create the x and y data lists
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use square brackets to create lists with the exact values given.

2

Import matplotlib and set up the plot

Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt. Create a figure and axis using plt.subplots() and store them in variables fig and ax.

Matplotlib

x = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
y1 = [0, 1, 4, 9, 16]
y2 = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
y3 = [0, 1, 8, 27, 64]

# Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt and create fig, ax
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use import matplotlib.pyplot as plt and plt.subplots() to create the plot area.

3

Plot the lines with different line styles

Use ax.plot() to plot the three lines with x and y1, y2, y3. Set the linestyle parameter to 'solid' for y1, 'dashed' for y2, and 'dotted' for y3. Add labels 'Solid', 'Dashed', and 'Dotted' respectively.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
y1 = [0, 1, 4, 9, 16]
y2 = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
y3 = [0, 1, 8, 27, 64]

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

# Plot y1 with solid, y2 with dashed, y3 with dotted line styles
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use ax.plot() three times with the correct linestyle and label parameters.

4

Add legend and show the plot

Use ax.legend() to add a legend to the plot. Then use plt.show() to display the plot.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
y1 = [0, 1, 4, 9, 16]
y2 = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
y3 = [0, 1, 8, 27, 64]

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

ax.plot(x, y1, linestyle='solid', label='Solid')
ax.plot(x, y2, linestyle='dashed', label='Dashed')
ax.plot(x, y3, linestyle='dotted', label='Dotted')

# Add legend and show the plot
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Call ax.legend() before plt.show() to display the legend on the plot.