Let's create our first plot: a bar chart. Bar charts are perfect for comparing values across different groups or categories, like sales figures for different products.
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What's a comparison from your daily life that would make a clear bar chart?
To build a bar chart, you need your data organized into two lists. One list for your categories (the labels for each bar) and a second list for the matching numerical values (the height of each bar). The order must match!
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What two lists would you need to chart the number of books read each month?
In Matplotlib, we use the ax.bar() method to create a bar chart. You provide your list of categories for the x-axis and your list of values for the y-axis.
ax.bar(category_list, value_list)
The library handles all the drawing for you.
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Makes sense?
Let's see the full code. First, we prepare our data lists. Then, we create our plot and use ax.bar() to draw the bars.
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What categories and values would you use if you wanted to make a bar chart about your favorite snacks?
Here is the bar chart created by that code. Notice how each product on the x-axis has a bar whose height corresponds to its sales value on the y-axis. This makes comparing them instant.
