Inverted axes in Matplotlib - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Inverted axes

📖 Scenario: You are analyzing sales data for a small store. You want to visualize the sales over a week using a bar chart. To better understand the data, you want to invert the axes so that the days appear on the vertical axis and the sales values on the horizontal axis.

🎯 Goal: Create a bar chart using matplotlib with inverted axes. The days of the week should be on the vertical axis, and the sales numbers on the horizontal axis.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary called sales with days of the week as keys and sales numbers as values.

Create a list called days containing the days of the week in order.

Create a list called values containing the sales numbers in the same order as days.

Use matplotlib.pyplot to create a bar chart with inverted axes.

Invert the axes so that days appear on the vertical axis and sales on the horizontal axis.

Display the plot.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Inverting axes is useful when you want to display categories on the vertical axis for better readability, such as days of the week or product names.

💼 Career

Data analysts and scientists often customize plots to make data easier to understand and communicate insights clearly to others.

1

Create the sales data dictionary

Create a dictionary called sales with these exact entries: 'Monday': 150, 'Tuesday': 200, 'Wednesday': 170, 'Thursday': 220, 'Friday': 180.

Matplotlib

# Create the sales dictionary with days and sales values
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use curly braces {} to create the dictionary with the exact keys and values.

2

Create lists for days and sales values

Create a list called days containing 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday' in this exact order. Then create a list called values containing the sales numbers from the sales dictionary in the same order as days.

Matplotlib

sales = {'Monday': 150, 'Tuesday': 200, 'Wednesday': 170, 'Thursday': 220, 'Friday': 180}
# Create the list days with the days of the week
# Create the list values with sales numbers in the same order
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a list comprehension to get the sales values in the order of the days list.

3

Create the bar chart with inverted axes

Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt. Use plt.barh(days, values) to create a horizontal bar chart with days on the vertical axis and values on the horizontal axis.

Matplotlib

sales = {'Monday': 150, 'Tuesday': 200, 'Wednesday': 170, 'Thursday': 220, 'Friday': 180}
days = ['Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday']
values = [sales[day] for day in days]
# Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# Create a horizontal bar chart with plt.barh(days, values)
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use plt.barh() to create a horizontal bar chart which inverts the axes.

4

Display the plot

Use plt.show() to display the bar chart with inverted axes.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

sales = {'Monday': 150, 'Tuesday': 200, 'Wednesday': 170, 'Thursday': 220, 'Friday': 180}
days = ['Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday']
values = [sales[day] for day in days]

plt.barh(days, values)
# Display the plot
# Your code here

Need a hint?

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