How to draw subplots?

[anhqle]

plotnine is made using matplotlib as the back-end, so I'm guessing there must be a way to draw subplots (without using faceting).

Is there a way to do so? I'd be happy to contribute to the documentation if someone points out a solution.

[has2k1]

You cannot draw subplots. It will be implemented when Matplotlib gets a better layout manager. At the moment, it would be hard to implement.

[anhqle]

Thanks for the quick reply! Is there not even any workaround, such as assigning plotnine plots to variables and print them out in a grid?

[has2k1]

There is no work around. Subplot layouts in Matplotlib are not a flexible as they could be, the solution is a better layout manager.

[jklymak]

@has2k1 I've been working on the layout manager, but I'm not clear what flexibility you are looking for. Since I'm looking for use-cases, can you elaborate (either here or in matplotlib/matplotlib#1109)? Thanks!

[has2k1]

@jklymak, you declared your interest in tacking the layout issue within a day of me finally fiddling with Tillstens examples and trying to figure out what it would take to come up with a workable MEP.
What I suggested as a plausible way forward has at the minimum (points 1 and 2) the flexibility that would be useful to plotnine.

From the your updates in that thread, I got more assured that the direction you were taking had the main concerns of this project covered. Nonetheless, I intended on working on top of your exploration to make sure of that. That would allow me to raise more substantive concerns. So far I have been reluctant to do that as I think the code you have is still in a lot of flux.

I will create a notebook to track the requirements of this project and test implementations using the constraint layout.

[jklymak]

@has2k1

Sure - you can check out my draft MEP at https://github.com/jklymak/mplconstrainedlayout/blob/master/DraftMEP.ipynb

Its pretty rudimentary. OTOH, I've actually implemented most of it.

[gokceneraslan]

Is the layout manager in matplotlib v2.2 sufficient for proper subplots in plotnine?

[has2k1]

@gokceneraslan, the layout manager is still experimental and I expect it to be lacking in some ways, the solution to which is to use it in an experimental branch in plotnine and make upstream contributions where necessary.

[louis-vines]

Sorry to wade in on this but this is the main piece of ggplot2 functionality I'm missing with plotnine and I'm using a lot more python these days. Is there any progress on this or is it still blocked by the matplotlib layout manager?