About linestyles: tuple not accepted in rc param file and other inconsistencies #11797
Description
This is related to #8040 and #9797, possibly #7219.
Bug report
Apart from strings like "-", "--", ":" , the linestyle can also be set as a tuple of an on/off sequence. There are however two different notations,
(on, off, on, off, ...)and(start, (on, off, on, off, ...)).
For all of the ways to set the linestyle, only one or none of those actually work.
Most importantly there is currently no way to set an on/off linestyle via the rc file.
The following lists those combinations and whether they work or not with the respective commands.
linestyle /dashes inside plot function
| command | working |
|---|---|
plt.plot([1,2], linestyle=":") |
✔️ |
plt.plot([1,2], linestyle=(5,1,1,1)) |
❌ |
plt.plot([1,2], linestyle=(0,(5,1,1,1))) |
✔️ |
plt.plot([1,2], dashes=":") |
❌ |
plt.plot([1,2], dashes=(5,1,1,1)) |
✔️ |
plt.plot([1,2], dashes=(0, (5,1,1,1))) |
❌ |
using rcParams
| command | working |
|---|---|
plt.rcParams["grid.linestyle"] = ":" |
✔️ |
plt.rcParams["grid.linestyle"] = (5,1,1,1) |
✔️ |
plt.rcParams["grid.linestyle"] = (0,(5,1,1,1)) |
❌ |
inside cycler using rcParams
| command | working |
|---|---|
plt.rcParams["axes.prop_cycle"] += plt.cycler("linestyle", [":"]) |
✔️ |
plt.rcParams["axes.prop_cycle"] += plt.cycler("linestyle", [(5,1,1,1)]) |
❌ |
plt.rcParams["axes.prop_cycle"] += plt.cycler("linestyle", [(0,(5,1,1,1))]) |
✔️ |
using rc file
| command | working |
|---|---|
grid.linestyle : : |
✔️ |
grid.linestyle : (5,1,1,1) |
❌ |
grid.linestyle : (0,(5,1,1,1)) |
❌ |
inside cycler using rc file
| command | working |
|---|---|
axes.prop_cycle : cycler("linestyle", [":"] ) |
✔️ |
axes.prop_cycle : cycler("linestyle", [(5,1,1,1)] ) |
❌ |
axes.prop_cycle : cycler("linestyle", [(0,(5,1,1,1))] ) |
❌ |
Correlation
| command | string ":" |
tuple (5,1,1,1) |
tuple (0,(5,1,1,1)) |
|---|---|---|---|
plt.plot(..., linestyle=x) |
✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ |
plt.plot(..., dashes=x) |
❌ | ✔️ | ❌ |
plt.rcParams["grid.linestyle"] = x |
✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ |
plt.rcParams["axes.prop_cycle"] += plt.cycler("linestyle", [x]) |
✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ |
rc file grid.linestyle : x |
✔️ | ❌ | ❌ |
rc file axes.prop_cycle : cycler("linestyle", [x] ) |
✔️ | ❌ | ❌ |
I think the first thing to do here is to identify which combinations should actually work.
attn. @afvincent who has last worked on validation of linestyle rc Parameters.