# Plotting CSDM object with matplotlib¶

As you may have noticed by now, a CSDM object holds basic metadata such as the label, unit, and physical quantity of the dimensions and dependent-variables, which is enough to visualize the CSDM datasets on proper coordinate axes. In the following section, we illustrate how you may use the CSDM object with the matplotlib plotting library.

When plotting CSDM objects with matplotlib, we make use of the CSDM object’s metadata to produce a matplotlib Axes object with basic formattings, such as the coordinate axes label, dependent variable labels, and legends. You may still additionally customize your figures. Please refer to the matplotlib documentation for further details.

To enable plotting CSDM objects with matplotlib, add a projection="csdm" to the matplotlib’s Axes instance, as follows,

ax = plt.subplot(projection="csdm")
# now add the matplotlib plotting functions to this axes.
# ax.plot(csdm_object) or
# ax.imshow(csdm_object) ... etc


See the following examples.