ENH: more helpful error message when plotting fails in DataFrame.plot, GH #478

Author: wesm

pandas/core/frame.py

@@ -3208,12 +3208,18 @@ def plot(self, subplots=False, sharex=True, sharey=False, use_index=True,
  for i, col in enumerate(_try_sort(self.columns)):
  empty = self[col].count() == 0
  y = self[col].values if not empty else np.zeros(x.shape)
- if subplots:
- ax = axes[i]
- ax.plot(x, y, 'k', label=str(col), **kwds)
- ax.legend(loc='best')
- else:
- ax.plot(x, y, label=str(col), **kwds)
+
+ try:
+ if subplots:
+ ax = axes[i]
+ ax.plot(x, y, 'k', label=str(col), **kwds)
+ ax.legend(loc='best')
+ else:
+ ax.plot(x, y, label=str(col), **kwds)
+ except Exception, e:
+ msg = ('Unable to plot data %s vs index %s,\n'
+ 'error was: %s' % (str(y), str(x), str(e)))
+ raise Exception(msg)
 
  ax.grid(grid)