Bug report

Bug summary

The method matplotlib.axes._subplots.AxesSubplot.bar has argument left which is actually the center of the bar. The name of the argument leads to unexpected results.

Code for reproduction

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

left = [0, 1, 3]
width = [1, 2, 1]
height = [1, 1, 1]
bottoms = [0, 1, 2]

# Actual
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
for l, w, h, b in zip(left, width, height, bottoms):
    ax.bar(left=l, width=w, height=h, bottom=b, color='blue')
plt.show()    
    
# Expected
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
for l, w, h, b in zip(left, width, height, bottoms):
    ax.bar(left=l + w/2, width=w, height=h, bottom=b, color='blue')
plt.show()

Actual outcome

The following is an text representation of the figure produced:

  3
  |                                                [------------------]
  2
  |        [--------------------------------]
  1 
  |  [-------------]
-0.5-----0.0-----0.5-----1.0-----1.5-----2.0-----2.5-----3.0-----3.5-----4.0**

Expected outcome

The following is an text representation of the figure produced:

  3
  |                                                      [------------------]
  2
  |                     [--------------------------------]
  1 
  |       [-------------]
-0.5-----0.0-----0.5-----1.0-----1.5-----2.0-----2.5-----3.0-----3.5-----4.0**

Matplotlib version

• Operating System: Windows 10.0.15063
• Matplotlib Version: 2.0.2
• Python Version: Python 3.6.1 |Anaconda custom (64-bit)| (default, May 11 2017, 13:25:24) [MSC v.1900 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
• Jupyter Version (if applicable):
• Other Libraries:

conda install matplotlib

Using default channel.