Legend outside the plot in Matplotlib - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Legend outside the plot

📖 Scenario: You are creating a simple line chart to compare sales data for two products over four quarters. You want to make sure the legend explaining the lines is placed outside the main plot area so the chart looks clean and easy to read.

🎯 Goal: Build a line plot with two lines representing sales of two products. Place the legend outside the plot area on the right side.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create two lists named quarters and sales_product_a with exact values.

Create a list named sales_product_b with exact values.

Plot both sales lines with labels 'Product A' and 'Product B'.

Add a legend outside the plot on the right side using plt.legend with bbox_to_anchor and loc parameters.

Display the plot with plt.show().

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Placing legends outside the plot is common in reports and dashboards to keep the chart area clean and readable.

💼 Career

Data analysts and scientists often need to create clear visualizations for presentations and reports, including customizing legend placement.

1

Create the sales data lists

Create a list called quarters with values ['Q1', 'Q2', 'Q3', 'Q4']. Create a list called sales_product_a with values [150, 200, 250, 300].

Matplotlib

# Create the quarters and sales_product_a lists
# Your code here

Need a hint?

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

2

Add sales data for Product B

Create a list called sales_product_b with values [180, 220, 260, 310].

Matplotlib

quarters = ['Q1', 'Q2', 'Q3', 'Q4']
sales_product_a = [150, 200, 250, 300]
# Create the sales_product_b list
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Make sure to use the exact list name and values.

3

Plot the sales lines with labels

Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt. Use plt.plot to plot quarters vs sales_product_a with label 'Product A'. Then plot quarters vs sales_product_b with label 'Product B'.

Matplotlib

quarters = ['Q1', 'Q2', 'Q3', 'Q4']
sales_product_a = [150, 200, 250, 300]
sales_product_b = [180, 220, 260, 310]
# Import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# Plot sales_product_a with label 'Product A'
# Plot sales_product_b with label 'Product B'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use plt.plot(x, y, label='name') to add lines with labels.

4

Place the legend outside the plot and show it

Use plt.legend with loc='center left' and bbox_to_anchor=(1, 0.5) to place the legend outside the plot on the right side. Then call plt.show() to display the plot.

Matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

quarters = ['Q1', 'Q2', 'Q3', 'Q4']
sales_product_a = [150, 200, 250, 300]
sales_product_b = [180, 220, 260, 310]

plt.plot(quarters, sales_product_a, label='Product A')
plt.plot(quarters, sales_product_b, label='Product B')
# Add legend outside the plot on the right
# Show the plot
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use plt.legend(loc='center left', bbox_to_anchor=(1, 0.5)) to place the legend outside on the right.

Call plt.show() to display the plot.