Remove the legend on a matplotlib figure
MatplotlibLegendMatplotlib Problem Overview
To add a legend to a matplotlib plot, one simply runs legend()
.
How to remove a legend from a plot?
(The closest I came to this is to run legend([])
in order to empty the legend from data. But that leaves an ugly white rectangle in the upper right corner.)
Matplotlib Solutions
Solution 1 - Matplotlib
As of matplotlib v1.4.0rc4
, a remove
method has been added to the legend object.
Usage:
ax.get_legend().remove()
or
legend = ax.legend(...)
...
legend.remove()
See here for the commit where this was introduced.
Solution 2 - Matplotlib
If you want to plot a Pandas dataframe and want to remove the legend, add legend=None as parameter to the plot command.
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
df2 = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randn(10, 5))
df2.plot(legend=None)
plt.show()
Solution 3 - Matplotlib
You could use the legend's set_visible
method:
ax.legend().set_visible(False)
draw()
This is based on a answer provided to me in response to a similar question I had some time ago here
(Thanks for that answer Jouni - I'm sorry I was unable to mark the question as answered... perhaps someone who has the authority can do so for me?)
Solution 4 - Matplotlib
if you call pyplot
as plt
frameon=False
is to remove the border around the legend
and '' is passing the information that no variable should be in the legend
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.legend('',frameon=False)
Solution 5 - Matplotlib
you have to add the following lines of code:
ax = gca()
ax.legend_ = None
draw()
gca() returns the current axes handle, and has that property legend_
Solution 6 - Matplotlib
If you are not using fig and ax plot objects you can do it like so:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# do plot specifics
plt.legend('')
plt.show()
Solution 7 - Matplotlib
According to the information from @naitsirhc, I wanted to find the official API documentation. Here are my finding and some sample code.
- I created a
matplotlib.Axes
object byseaborn.scatterplot()
. - The
ax.get_legend()
will return amatplotlib.legned.Legend
instance. - Finally, you call
.remove()
function to remove the legend from your plot.
ax = sns.scatterplot(......)
_lg = ax.get_legend()
_lg.remove()
If you check the matplotlib.legned.Legend
API document, you won't see the .remove()
function.
The reason is that the matplotlib.legned.Legend
inherited the matplotlib.artist.Artist
. Therefore, when you call ax.get_legend().remove()
that basically call matplotlib.artist.Artist.remove()
.
In the end, you could even simplify the code into two lines.
ax = sns.scatterplot(......)
ax.get_legend().remove()
Solution 8 - Matplotlib
I made a legend by adding it to the figure, not to an axis (matplotlib 2.2.2). To remove it, I set the legends
attribute of the figure to an empty list:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig = plt.figure()
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(111)
ax2 = ax1.twinx()
ax1.plot(range(10), range(10, 20), label='line 1')
ax2.plot(range(10), range(30, 20, -1), label='line 2')
fig.legend()
fig.legends = []
plt.show()
Solution 9 - Matplotlib
If you are using seaborn you can use the parameter legend
. Even if you are ploting more than once in the same figure. Example with some df
import seaborn as sns
# Will display legend
ax1 = sns.lineplot(x='cars', y='miles', hue='brand', data=df)
# No legend displayed
ax2 = sns.lineplot(x='cars', y='miles', hue='brand', data=df, legend=None)