In this short tutorial, you’ll see the steps to place matplotlib charts on a tkinter GUI.
More specifically, you’ll learn how to embed the following charts on your GUI:
- Bar
- Line
- Scatter
Steps to place matplotlib charts on a tkinter GUI
Step 1: Prepare the datasets for the charts
Firstly, you’ll need to prepare the datasets for the charts.
For illustration purposes, let’s use the following 3 datasets for our charts:
Data for the Bar Chart
| country | gdp_per_capita |
| A | 45000 |
| B | 42000 |
| C | 52000 |
| D | 49000 |
| E | 47000 |
Data for the Line Chart
| year | unemployment_rate |
| 1920 | 9.8 |
| 1930 | 12 |
| 1940 | 8 |
| 1950 | 7.2 |
| 1960 | 6.9 |
| 1970 | 7 |
| 1980 | 6.5 |
| 1990 | 6.2 |
| 2000 | 5.5 |
| 2010 | 6.3 |
Data for the Scatter Diagram
| interest_rate | index_price |
| 5 | 1500 |
| 5.5 | 1520 |
| 6 | 1525 |
| 5.5 | 1523 |
| 5.25 | 1515 |
| 6.5 | 1540 |
| 7 | 1545 |
| 8 | 1560 |
| 7.5 | 1555 |
| 8.5 | 1565 |
Step 2: Create the DataFrames in Python
Next, capture the above data using the following DataFrames:
import pandas as pd
data1 = {'country': ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E'],
'gdp_per_capita': [45000, 42000, 52000, 49000, 47000]
}
df1 = pd.DataFrame(data1)
print(df1)
data2 = {'year': [1920, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010],
'unemployment_rate': [9.8, 12, 8, 7.2, 6.9, 7, 6.5, 6.2, 5.5, 6.3]
}
df2 = pd.DataFrame(data2)
print(df2)
data3 = {'interest_rate': [5, 5.5, 6, 5.5, 5.25, 6.5, 7, 8, 7.5, 8.5],
'index_price': [1500, 1520, 1525, 1523, 1515, 1540, 1545, 1560, 1555, 1565]
}
df3 = pd.DataFrame(data3)
print(df3)
Run the above code, and you’ll get the following 3 DataFrames:
country gdp_per_capita
0 A 45000
1 B 42000
2 C 52000
3 D 49000
4 E 47000
year unemployment_rate
0 1920 9.8
1 1930 12.0
2 1940 8.0
3 1950 7.2
4 1960 6.9
5 1970 7.0
6 1980 6.5
7 1990 6.2
8 2000 5.5
9 2010 6.3
interest_rate index_price
0 5.00 1500
1 5.50 1520
2 6.00 1525
3 5.50 1523
4 5.25 1515
5 6.50 1540
6 7.00 1545
7 8.00 1560
8 7.50 1555
9 8.50 1565
Step 3: Create the GUI
Next, you’ll need to create the tkinter GUI, so that you can place the charts on it.
To begin, you’ll need to import the tkinter and matplotlib modules as follows:
import tkinter as tk import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from matplotlib.backends.backend_tkagg import FigureCanvasTkAgg
Then, add the charts on the GUI by using this generic template:
figure = plt.Figure(figsize=(6,5), dpi=100)
ax = figure.add_subplot(111)
chart_type = FigureCanvasTkAgg(figure, root)
chart_type.get_tk_widget().pack()
df = df[['First Column','Second Column']].groupby('First Column').sum()
df.plot(kind='Chart Type such as bar', legend=True, ax=ax)
ax.set_title('The Title for your chart')
Slight variations may be applied to the above template, depending on the chart that you need to plot.
Putting everything together, your full Python code would look like this:
import tkinter as tk
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.backends.backend_tkagg import FigureCanvasTkAgg
data1 = {'country': ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E'],
'gdp_per_capita': [45000, 42000, 52000, 49000, 47000]
}
df1 = pd.DataFrame(data1)
data2 = {'year': [1920, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010],
'unemployment_rate': [9.8, 12, 8, 7.2, 6.9, 7, 6.5, 6.2, 5.5, 6.3]
}
df2 = pd.DataFrame(data2)
data3 = {'interest_rate': [5, 5.5, 6, 5.5, 5.25, 6.5, 7, 8, 7.5, 8.5],
'index_price': [1500, 1520, 1525, 1523, 1515, 1540, 1545, 1560, 1555, 1565]
}
df3 = pd.DataFrame(data3)
root = tk.Tk()
figure1 = plt.Figure(figsize=(6, 5), dpi=100)
ax1 = figure1.add_subplot(111)
bar1 = FigureCanvasTkAgg(figure1, root)
bar1.get_tk_widget().pack(side=tk.LEFT, fill=tk.BOTH)
df1 = df1[['country', 'gdp_per_capita']].groupby('country').sum()
df1.plot(kind='bar', legend=True, ax=ax1)
ax1.set_title('Country Vs. GDP Per Capita')
figure2 = plt.Figure(figsize=(5, 4), dpi=100)
ax2 = figure2.add_subplot(111)
line2 = FigureCanvasTkAgg(figure2, root)
line2.get_tk_widget().pack(side=tk.LEFT, fill=tk.BOTH)
df2 = df2[['year', 'unemployment_rate']].groupby('year').sum()
df2.plot(kind='line', legend=True, ax=ax2, color='r', marker='o', fontsize=10)
ax2.set_title('Year Vs. Unemployment Rate')
figure3 = plt.Figure(figsize=(5, 4), dpi=100)
ax3 = figure3.add_subplot(111)
ax3.scatter(df3['interest_rate'], df3['index_price'], color='g')
scatter3 = FigureCanvasTkAgg(figure3, root)
scatter3.get_tk_widget().pack(side=tk.LEFT, fill=tk.BOTH)
ax3.legend(['index_price'])
ax3.set_xlabel('Interest Rate')
ax3.set_title('Interest Rate Vs. Index Price')
root.mainloop()
Run the above Python code, and you’ll see the matplotlib charts placed on the GUI.
For additional information about the tkinter module, you may check the tkinter documentation.