Why is Matplotlib plotting values with an incorrect Y?

Question

I am trying to plot some points with a date on the X axis and a numeric score on the Y axis. However, when I plot the dates list and the score list (see below)

['03 January 2021', '05 January 2021', '06 January 2021', '08 January 2021', '10 January 2021', '10 January 2021', '22 January 2021', '22 January 2021', '18 February 2021', '24 February 2021', '03 March 2021', '31 March 2021', '31 March 2021', '21 April 2021', '21 April 2021']
['94', '97', '93', '94', '96', '97', '95', '93', '95', '97', '91', '97', '97', '95', '98']

using this code:

plt.plot(dates,scores, marker='o')
plt.xlabel('Date')
plt.ylabel('Score')
plt.xticks(rotation=45)
plt.show()

I get a plot that has a messed up Y axis - it is not in numerical order: https://i.stack.imgur.com/2owQd.png

Does anyone know what's causing this or why the Y axis might be out of order?

Cast scores to int type. – Fariborz Ghavamian Jun 04 '21 at 15:04 — Fariborz Ghavamian, Jun 04 '21 at 15:04
Because the y values are strings, not numbers. – mkrieger1 Jun 04 '21 at 15:04 — mkrieger1, Jun 04 '21 at 15:04
Yep, this got it figured out! Thank you – Sigmond Kukla Jun 04 '21 at 15:10 — Sigmond Kukla, Jun 04 '21 at 15:10

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 04 '21 at 15:06

0

Thank you Fariborz and mkrieger1! That was the issue, and I didn't even think of it.

answered Jun 04 '21 at 15:06

Sigmond Kukla

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Why is Matplotlib plotting values with an incorrect Y?

1 Answers1