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I'm trying to find the correct terminology for the default plt.plot() method from Python's matplotlib. It appears to behave like a line graph, but that name seems a bit dodgy when there are actually no lines, and symbols like x and + are used to mark y-values.

An example is shown below. What do you call this type of graph please?

enter image description here

mkt
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Robin Andrews
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    Search the Web for "Cleveland dot plot." Here is an example on CV. – whuber Feb 20 '21 at 18:41
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    Dot plot or dot chart are indeed some names, although the qualifier Cleveland is needed to distinguish them from dotplots meaning pointillist histograms. Broadly similar examples can be found in early editions of Snedecor's text from 1937 on, provided that the essence is taken to be one "categorical" axis and one "measured" axis. See also two of the graphs in Pearson, E. S. 1956. Some Aspects of the Geometry of Statistics: The Use of Visual Presentation in Understanding the Theory and Application of Mathematical Statistics. JRSS A 119: 125–146. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2342880. – Nick Cox Feb 20 '21 at 18:54
  • Different question, but the graph would be better with text horizontal. – Nick Cox Feb 20 '21 at 19:16

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Answered in comments by whuber and Nick Cox:

Search the Web for "Cleveland dot plot." Here is an example on CV.

-whuber

Dot plot or dot chart are indeed some names, although the qualifier Cleveland is needed to distinguish them from dotplots meaning pointillist histograms. Broadly similar examples can be found in early editions of Snedecor's text from 1937 on, provided that the essence is taken to be one "categorical" axis and one "measured" axis. See also two of the graphs in Pearson, E. S. 1956. Some Aspects of the Geometry of Statistics: The Use of Visual Presentation in Understanding the Theory and Application of Mathematical Statistics. JRSS A 119: 125–146. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2342880

-Nick Cox

mkt
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