Matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend() in Python

Last Updated : 19 Apr, 2020

Matplotlib is a library in Python and it is numerical - mathematical extension for NumPy library. The Axes Class contains most of the figure elements: Axis, Tick, Line2D, Text, Polygon, etc., and sets the coordinate system. And the instances of Axes supports callbacks through a callbacks attribute.

matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend() Function

The Axes.legend() function in axes module of matplotlib library is used to place a legend on the axes.

Syntax: Axes.legend(self, *args, **kwargs) Parameters: This method accepts the following parameters.

labels : This parameter is the list of labels to show next to the artists.

handles : This parameter is the list of Artists (lines, patches) to be added to the legend.

Returns:This method returns the matplotlib.legend.Legend instance.

Below examples illustrate the matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend() function in matplotlib.axes: Example 1:

Python3

# Implementation of matplotlib function import matplotlib.pyplot as plt fig, ax = plt.subplots() line1, = ax.plot([1, 2, 3], label ="Line 1", color ="black", linewidth = 4, linestyle =':') line2, = ax.plot([3, 2, 1], label ="Line 2", color ="green", linewidth = 4) first_legend = ax.legend(handles =[line1], loc ='upper center') ax.add_artist(first_legend) ax.legend(handles =[line2], loc ='lower center') fig.suptitle('matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend() \ function Example\n', fontweight ="bold") plt.show()

Output:

Example 2:

Python3

# Implementation of matplotlib function import numpy as np import matplotlib.pyplot as plt np.random.seed(19680801) fig, ax = plt.subplots() for color in [ 'tab:green', 'tab:blue', 'tab:orange']: n = 70 x, y = np.random.rand(2, n) scale = 1000.0 * np.random.rand(n) ax.scatter(x, y, c = color, s = scale, label = color, alpha = 0.35) ax.legend() ax.grid(True) fig.suptitle('matplotlib.axes.Axes.legend() function\  Example\n', fontweight ="bold") plt.show()