I am trying to plot some data from a camera in real time using OpenCV. However, the real-time plotting (using matplotlib) doesn’t seem to be working.

I’ve isolated the problem into this simple example:

fig = plt.figure()
plt.axis([0, 1000, 0, 1])

i = 0
x = list()
y = list()

while i < 1000:
    temp_y = np.random.random()
    x.append(i)
    y.append(temp_y)
    plt.scatter(i, temp_y)
    i += 1
    plt.show()

I would expect this example to plot 1000 points individually. What actually happens is that the window pops up with the first point showing (ok with that), then waits for the loop to finish before it populates the rest of the graph.

Any thoughts why I am not seeing points populated one at a time?

Here’s the working version of the code in question (requires at least version Matplotlib 1.1.0 from 2011-11-14):

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.axis([0, 10, 0, 1])

for i in range(10):
    y = np.random.random()
    plt.scatter(i, y)
    plt.pause(0.05)

plt.show()

Note some of the changes:

1. Call plt.pause(0.05) to both draw the new data and it runs the GUI’s event loop (allowing for mouse interaction).

If you’re interested in realtime plotting, I’d recommend looking into matplotlib’s animation API. In particular, using blit to avoid redrawing the background on every frame can give you substantial speed gains (~10x):

#!/usr/bin/env python

import numpy as np
import time
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('GTKAgg')
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt


def randomwalk(dims=(256, 256), n=20, sigma=5, alpha=0.95, seed=1):
    """ A simple random walk with memory """

    r, c = dims
    gen = np.random.RandomState(seed)
    pos = gen.rand(2, n) * ((r,), (c,))
    old_delta = gen.randn(2, n) * sigma

    while True:
        delta = (1. - alpha) * gen.randn(2, n) * sigma + alpha * old_delta
        pos += delta
        for ii in xrange(n):
            if not (0. <= pos[0, ii] < r):
                pos[0, ii] = abs(pos[0, ii] % r)
            if not (0. <= pos[1, ii] < c):
                pos[1, ii] = abs(pos[1, ii] % c)
        old_delta = delta
        yield pos


def run(niter=1000, doblit=True):
    """
    Display the simulation using matplotlib, optionally using blit for speed
    """

    fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, 1)
    ax.set_aspect('equal')
    ax.set_xlim(0, 255)
    ax.set_ylim(0, 255)
    ax.hold(True)
    rw = randomwalk()
    x, y = rw.next()

    plt.show(False)
    plt.draw()

    if doblit:
        # cache the background
        background = fig.canvas.copy_from_bbox(ax.bbox)

    points = ax.plot(x, y, 'o')[0]
    tic = time.time()

    for ii in xrange(niter):

        # update the xy data
        x, y = rw.next()
        points.set_data(x, y)

        if doblit:
            # restore background
            fig.canvas.restore_region(background)

            # redraw just the points
            ax.draw_artist(points)

            # fill in the axes rectangle
            fig.canvas.blit(ax.bbox)

        else:
            # redraw everything
            fig.canvas.draw()

    plt.close(fig)
    print "Blit = %s, average FPS: %.2f" % (
        str(doblit), niter / (time.time() - tic))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    run(doblit=False)
    run(doblit=True)

Output:

Blit = False, average FPS: 54.37
Blit = True, average FPS: 438.27

I know I’m a bit late to answer this question. Nevertheless, I’ve made some code a while ago to plot live graphs, that I would like to share:

Code for PyQt4:

###################################################################
#                                                                 #
#                    PLOT A LIVE GRAPH (PyQt4)                    #
#                  -----------------------------                  #
#            EMBED A MATPLOTLIB ANIMATION INSIDE YOUR             #
#            OWN GUI!                                             #
#                                                                 #
###################################################################


import sys
import os
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4 import QtCore
import functools
import numpy as np
import random as rd
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Qt4Agg")
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from matplotlib.animation import TimedAnimation
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt4agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
import time
import threading


def setCustomSize(x, width, height):
    sizePolicy = QtGui.QSizePolicy(QtGui.QSizePolicy.Fixed, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Fixed)
    sizePolicy.setHorizontalStretch(0)
    sizePolicy.setVerticalStretch(0)
    sizePolicy.setHeightForWidth(x.sizePolicy().hasHeightForWidth())
    x.setSizePolicy(sizePolicy)
    x.setMinimumSize(QtCore.QSize(width, height))
    x.setMaximumSize(QtCore.QSize(width, height))

''''''

class CustomMainWindow(QtGui.QMainWindow):

    def __init__(self):

        super(CustomMainWindow, self).__init__()

        # Define the geometry of the main window
        self.setGeometry(300, 300, 800, 400)
        self.setWindowTitle("my first window")

        # Create FRAME_A
        self.FRAME_A = QtGui.QFrame(self)
        self.FRAME_A.setStyleSheet("QWidget { background-color: %s }" % QtGui.QColor(210,210,235,255).name())
        self.LAYOUT_A = QtGui.QGridLayout()
        self.FRAME_A.setLayout(self.LAYOUT_A)
        self.setCentralWidget(self.FRAME_A)

        # Place the zoom button
        self.zoomBtn = QtGui.QPushButton(text = 'zoom')
        setCustomSize(self.zoomBtn, 100, 50)
        self.zoomBtn.clicked.connect(self.zoomBtnAction)
        self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.zoomBtn, *(0,0))

        # Place the matplotlib figure
        self.myFig = CustomFigCanvas()
        self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.myFig, *(0,1))

        # Add the callbackfunc to ..
        myDataLoop = threading.Thread(name = 'myDataLoop', target = dataSendLoop, daemon = True, args = (self.addData_callbackFunc,))
        myDataLoop.start()

        self.show()

    ''''''


    def zoomBtnAction(self):
        print("zoom in")
        self.myFig.zoomIn(5)

    ''''''

    def addData_callbackFunc(self, value):
        # print("Add data: " + str(value))
        self.myFig.addData(value)



''' End Class '''


class CustomFigCanvas(FigureCanvas, TimedAnimation):

    def __init__(self):

        self.addedData = []
        print(matplotlib.__version__)

        # The data
        self.xlim = 200
        self.n = np.linspace(0, self.xlim - 1, self.xlim)
        a = []
        b = []
        a.append(2.0)
        a.append(4.0)
        a.append(2.0)
        b.append(4.0)
        b.append(3.0)
        b.append(4.0)
        self.y = (self.n * 0.0) + 50

        # The window
        self.fig = Figure(figsize=(5,5), dpi=100)
        self.ax1 = self.fig.add_subplot(111)


        # self.ax1 settings
        self.ax1.set_xlabel('time')
        self.ax1.set_ylabel('raw data')
        self.line1 = Line2D([], [], color='blue')
        self.line1_tail = Line2D([], [], color='red', linewidth=2)
        self.line1_head = Line2D([], [], color='red', marker='o', markeredgecolor='r')
        self.ax1.add_line(self.line1)
        self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_tail)
        self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_head)
        self.ax1.set_xlim(0, self.xlim - 1)
        self.ax1.set_ylim(0, 100)


        FigureCanvas.__init__(self, self.fig)
        TimedAnimation.__init__(self, self.fig, interval = 50, blit = True)

    def new_frame_seq(self):
        return iter(range(self.n.size))

    def _init_draw(self):
        lines = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
        for l in lines:
            l.set_data([], [])

    def addData(self, value):
        self.addedData.append(value)

    def zoomIn(self, value):
        bottom = self.ax1.get_ylim()[0]
        top = self.ax1.get_ylim()[1]
        bottom += value
        top -= value
        self.ax1.set_ylim(bottom,top)
        self.draw()


    def _step(self, *args):
        # Extends the _step() method for the TimedAnimation class.
        try:
            TimedAnimation._step(self, *args)
        except Exception as e:
            self.abc += 1
            print(str(self.abc))
            TimedAnimation._stop(self)
            pass

    def _draw_frame(self, framedata):
        margin = 2
        while(len(self.addedData) > 0):
            self.y = np.roll(self.y, -1)
            self.y[-1] = self.addedData[0]
            del(self.addedData[0])


        self.line1.set_data(self.n[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ], self.y[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ])
        self.line1_tail.set_data(np.append(self.n[-10:-1 - margin], self.n[-1 - margin]), np.append(self.y[-10:-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin]))
        self.line1_head.set_data(self.n[-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin])
        self._drawn_artists = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]

''' End Class '''

# You need to setup a signal slot mechanism, to 
# send data to your GUI in a thread-safe way.
# Believe me, if you don't do this right, things
# go very very wrong..
class Communicate(QtCore.QObject):
    data_signal = QtCore.pyqtSignal(float)

''' End Class '''


def dataSendLoop(addData_callbackFunc):
    # Setup the signal-slot mechanism.
    mySrc = Communicate()
    mySrc.data_signal.connect(addData_callbackFunc)

    # Simulate some data
    n = np.linspace(0, 499, 500)
    y = 50 + 25*(np.sin(n / 8.3)) + 10*(np.sin(n / 7.5)) - 5*(np.sin(n / 1.5))
    i = 0

    while(True):
        if(i > 499):
            i = 0
        time.sleep(0.1)
        mySrc.data_signal.emit(y[i]) # <- Here you emit a signal!
        i += 1
    ###
###


if __name__== '__main__':
    app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
    QtGui.QApplication.setStyle(QtGui.QStyleFactory.create('Plastique'))
    myGUI = CustomMainWindow()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

''''''

 
I recently rewrote the code for PyQt5.
Code for PyQt5:

###################################################################
#                                                                 #
#                    PLOT A LIVE GRAPH (PyQt5)                    #
#                  -----------------------------                  #
#            EMBED A MATPLOTLIB ANIMATION INSIDE YOUR             #
#            OWN GUI!                                             #
#                                                                 #
###################################################################

import sys
import os
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import *
from PyQt5.QtCore import *
from PyQt5.QtGui import *
import functools
import numpy as np
import random as rd
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Qt5Agg")
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from matplotlib.animation import TimedAnimation
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt5agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
import time
import threading

class CustomMainWindow(QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        super(CustomMainWindow, self).__init__()
        # Define the geometry of the main window
        self.setGeometry(300, 300, 800, 400)
        self.setWindowTitle("my first window")
        # Create FRAME_A
        self.FRAME_A = QFrame(self)
        self.FRAME_A.setStyleSheet("QWidget { background-color: %s }" % QColor(210,210,235,255).name())
        self.LAYOUT_A = QGridLayout()
        self.FRAME_A.setLayout(self.LAYOUT_A)
        self.setCentralWidget(self.FRAME_A)
        # Place the zoom button
        self.zoomBtn = QPushButton(text = 'zoom')
        self.zoomBtn.setFixedSize(100, 50)
        self.zoomBtn.clicked.connect(self.zoomBtnAction)
        self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.zoomBtn, *(0,0))
        # Place the matplotlib figure
        self.myFig = CustomFigCanvas()
        self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.myFig, *(0,1))
        # Add the callbackfunc to ..
        myDataLoop = threading.Thread(name = 'myDataLoop', target = dataSendLoop, daemon = True, args = (self.addData_callbackFunc,))
        myDataLoop.start()
        self.show()
        return

    def zoomBtnAction(self):
        print("zoom in")
        self.myFig.zoomIn(5)
        return

    def addData_callbackFunc(self, value):
        # print("Add data: " + str(value))
        self.myFig.addData(value)
        return

''' End Class '''


class CustomFigCanvas(FigureCanvas, TimedAnimation):
    def __init__(self):
        self.addedData = []
        print(matplotlib.__version__)
        # The data
        self.xlim = 200
        self.n = np.linspace(0, self.xlim - 1, self.xlim)
        a = []
        b = []
        a.append(2.0)
        a.append(4.0)
        a.append(2.0)
        b.append(4.0)
        b.append(3.0)
        b.append(4.0)
        self.y = (self.n * 0.0) + 50
        # The window
        self.fig = Figure(figsize=(5,5), dpi=100)
        self.ax1 = self.fig.add_subplot(111)
        # self.ax1 settings
        self.ax1.set_xlabel('time')
        self.ax1.set_ylabel('raw data')
        self.line1 = Line2D([], [], color='blue')
        self.line1_tail = Line2D([], [], color='red', linewidth=2)
        self.line1_head = Line2D([], [], color='red', marker='o', markeredgecolor='r')
        self.ax1.add_line(self.line1)
        self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_tail)
        self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_head)
        self.ax1.set_xlim(0, self.xlim - 1)
        self.ax1.set_ylim(0, 100)
        FigureCanvas.__init__(self, self.fig)
        TimedAnimation.__init__(self, self.fig, interval = 50, blit = True)
        return

    def new_frame_seq(self):
        return iter(range(self.n.size))

    def _init_draw(self):
        lines = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
        for l in lines:
            l.set_data([], [])
        return

    def addData(self, value):
        self.addedData.append(value)
        return

    def zoomIn(self, value):
        bottom = self.ax1.get_ylim()[0]
        top = self.ax1.get_ylim()[1]
        bottom += value
        top -= value
        self.ax1.set_ylim(bottom,top)
        self.draw()
        return

    def _step(self, *args):
        # Extends the _step() method for the TimedAnimation class.
        try:
            TimedAnimation._step(self, *args)
        except Exception as e:
            self.abc += 1
            print(str(self.abc))
            TimedAnimation._stop(self)
            pass
        return

    def _draw_frame(self, framedata):
        margin = 2
        while(len(self.addedData) > 0):
            self.y = np.roll(self.y, -1)
            self.y[-1] = self.addedData[0]
            del(self.addedData[0])

        self.line1.set_data(self.n[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ], self.y[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ])
        self.line1_tail.set_data(np.append(self.n[-10:-1 - margin], self.n[-1 - margin]), np.append(self.y[-10:-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin]))
        self.line1_head.set_data(self.n[-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin])
        self._drawn_artists = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
        return

''' End Class '''


# You need to setup a signal slot mechanism, to
# send data to your GUI in a thread-safe way.
# Believe me, if you don't do this right, things
# go very very wrong..
class Communicate(QObject):
    data_signal = pyqtSignal(float)

''' End Class '''



def dataSendLoop(addData_callbackFunc):
    # Setup the signal-slot mechanism.
    mySrc = Communicate()
    mySrc.data_signal.connect(addData_callbackFunc)

    # Simulate some data
    n = np.linspace(0, 499, 500)
    y = 50 + 25*(np.sin(n / 8.3)) + 10*(np.sin(n / 7.5)) - 5*(np.sin(n / 1.5))
    i = 0

    while(True):
        if(i > 499):
            i = 0
        time.sleep(0.1)
        mySrc.data_signal.emit(y[i]) # <- Here you emit a signal!
        i += 1
    ###
###

if __name__== '__main__':
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    QApplication.setStyle(QStyleFactory.create('Plastique'))
    myGUI = CustomMainWindow()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

Just try it out. Copy-paste this code in a new python-file, and run it. You should get a beautiful, smoothly moving graph:

show is probably not the best choice for this. What I would do is use pyplot.draw() instead. You also might want to include a small time delay (e.g., time.sleep(0.05)) in the loop so that you can see the plots happening. If I make these changes to your example it works for me and I see each point appearing one at a time.

None of the methods worked for me. But I have found this Real time matplotlib plot is not working while still in a loop

All you need is to add

plt.pause(0.0001)

and then you could see the new plots.

So your code should look like this, and it will work

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
plt.ion() ## Note this correction
fig=plt.figure()
plt.axis([0,1000,0,1])

i=0
x=list()
y=list()

while i <1000:
    temp_y=np.random.random();
    x.append(i);
    y.append(temp_y);
    plt.scatter(i,temp_y);
    i+=1;
    plt.show()
    plt.pause(0.0001) #Note this correction

The top (and many other) answers were built upon plt.pause(), but that was an old way of animating the plot in matplotlib. It is not only slow, but also causes focus to be grabbed upon each update (I had a hard time stopping the plotting python process).

TL;DR: you may want to use matplotlib.animation (as mentioned in documentation).

After digging around various answers and pieces of code, this in fact proved to be a smooth way of drawing incoming data infinitely for me.

Here is my code for a quick start. It plots current time with a random number in [0, 100) every 200ms infinitely, while also handling auto rescaling of the view:

from datetime import datetime
from matplotlib import pyplot
from matplotlib.animation import FuncAnimation
from random import randrange

x_data, y_data = [], []

figure = pyplot.figure()
line, = pyplot.plot_date(x_data, y_data, '-')

def update(frame):
    x_data.append(datetime.now())
    y_data.append(randrange(0, 100))
    line.set_data(x_data, y_data)
    figure.gca().relim()
    figure.gca().autoscale_view()
    return line,

animation = FuncAnimation(figure, update, interval=200)

pyplot.show()

You can also explore blit for even better performance as in FuncAnimation documentation.

An example from the blit documentation:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.animation import FuncAnimation

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
xdata, ydata = [], []
ln, = plt.plot([], [], 'ro')

def init():
    ax.set_xlim(0, 2*np.pi)
    ax.set_ylim(-1, 1)
    return ln,

def update(frame):
    xdata.append(frame)
    ydata.append(np.sin(frame))
    ln.set_data(xdata, ydata)
    return ln,

ani = FuncAnimation(fig, update, frames=np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, 128),
                    init_func=init, blit=True)
plt.show()

I know this question is old, but there’s now a package available called drawnow on GitHub as “python-drawnow”. This provides an interface similar to MATLAB’s drawnow — you can easily update a figure.

An example for your use case:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from drawnow import drawnow

def make_fig():
    plt.scatter(x, y)  # I think you meant this

plt.ion()  # enable interactivity
fig = plt.figure()  # make a figure

x = list()
y = list()

for i in range(1000):
    temp_y = np.random.random()
    x.append(i)
    y.append(temp_y)  # or any arbitrary update to your figure's data
    i += 1
    drawnow(make_fig)

python-drawnow is a thin wrapper around plt.draw but provides the ability to confirm (or debug) after figure display.

The problem seems to be that you expect plt.show() to show the window and then to return. It does not do that. The program will stop at that point and only resume once you close the window. You should be able to test that: If you close the window and then another window should pop up.

To resolve that problem just call plt.show() once after your loop. Then you get the complete plot. (But not a ‘real-time plotting’)

You can try setting the keyword-argument block like this: plt.show(block=False) once at the beginning and then use .draw() to update.

Here is a version that I got to work on my system.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from drawnow import drawnow
import numpy as np

def makeFig():
    plt.scatter(xList,yList) # I think you meant this

plt.ion() # enable interactivity
fig=plt.figure() # make a figure

xList=list()
yList=list()

for i in np.arange(50):
    y=np.random.random()
    xList.append(i)
    yList.append(y)
    drawnow(makeFig)
    #makeFig()      The drawnow(makeFig) command can be replaced
    #plt.draw()     with makeFig(); plt.draw()
    plt.pause(0.001)

The drawnow(makeFig) line can be replaced with a makeFig(); plt.draw() sequence and it still works OK.

If you want draw and not freeze your thread as more point are drawn you should use plt.pause() not time.sleep()

im using the following code to plot a series of xy coordinates.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt 
import math


pi = 3.14159

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

x = []
y = []

def PointsInCircum(r,n=20):
    circle = [(math.cos(2*pi/n*x)*r,math.sin(2*pi/n*x)*r) for x in xrange(0,n+1)]
    return circle

circle_list = PointsInCircum(3, 50)

for t in range(len(circle_list)):
    if t == 0:
        points, = ax.plot(x, y, marker='o', linestyle='--')
        ax.set_xlim(-4, 4) 
        ax.set_ylim(-4, 4) 
    else:
        x_coord, y_coord = circle_list.pop()
        x.append(x_coord)
        y.append(y_coord)
        points.set_data(x, y)
    plt.pause(0.01)

Another option is to go with bokeh. IMO, it is a good alternative at least for real-time plots. Here is a bokeh version of the code in the question:

from bokeh.plotting import curdoc, figure
import random
import time

def update():
    global i
    temp_y = random.random()
    r.data_source.stream({'x': [i], 'y': [temp_y]})
    i += 1

i = 0
p = figure()
r = p.circle([], [])
curdoc().add_root(p)
curdoc().add_periodic_callback(update, 100)

and for running it:

pip3 install bokeh
bokeh serve --show test.py

bokeh shows the result in a web browser via websocket communications. It is especially useful when data is generated by remote headless server processes.

An example use-case to plot CPU usage in real-time.

import time
import psutil
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)

i = 0
x, y = [], []

while True:
    x.append(i)
    y.append(psutil.cpu_percent())

    ax.plot(x, y, color='b')

    fig.canvas.draw()

    ax.set_xlim(left=max(0, i - 50), right=i + 50)
    fig.show()
    plt.pause(0.05)
    i += 1