📊 Matplotlib Bar Charts

Last Updated: 06 Nov 2025

Bar chart is used to compare categories. You can use vertical bars (bar) or horizontal bars (barh).

Hinglish Tip 🗣: Bar chart ko “items ki comparison” dikhane ke liye use karte hain — jaise sales, marks, count etc.

Basic Vertical Bar Chart

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

names = ["A", "B", "C"]
values = [10, 25, 15]

plt.bar(names, values)
plt.show()

Basic Horizontal Bar Chart

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

names = ["A", "B", "C"]
values = [10, 25, 15]

plt.barh(names, values)
plt.show()

Useful Parameters for Bar Plot

  • color - Color of the bar
  • width - Width of the bar
  • height - Height of the bar
  • bottom - Bottom position of the bar
  • align - Alignment of the bar(e.g., 'center', 'edge')
  • edgecolor - Color of the bar edge
  • linewidth - Width of the bar edge
  • tick_label - Labels for the bar ticks

Example For Vertical Bar Chart

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

names = ["A", "B", "C", "D"]
values = [12, 30, 22, 17]

plt.figure(figsize=(8, 4))

plt.bar(
    names,
    values,
    color="skyblue",
    width=0.6,
    edgecolor="black",
    linewidth=1.2,
    alpha=0.9,
    label="Sales Count"
)

plt.title("Vertical Bar Chart")
plt.xlabel("Categories")
plt.ylabel("Values")
plt.legend()
plt.grid(axis="y", linestyle="--", alpha=0.5)

plt.show()

Example For Horizontal Bar Chart

plt.figure(figsize=(8, 4))

plt.barh(
    names,
    values,
    color="orange",
    height=0.6,
    edgecolor="black",
    linewidth=1,
    alpha=0.9,
    label="Sales Count"
)

plt.title("Horizontal Bar Chart")
plt.xlabel("Values")
plt.ylabel("Categories")
plt.legend()
plt.grid(axis="x", linestyle="--", alpha=0.5)

plt.show()

Grouped (Side-by-Side) Bar Chart

Useful when you want to compare multiple categories.

import numpy as np

names = ["A", "B", "C", "D"]
x = np.arange(len(names))

values1 = [12, 30, 22, 17]
values2 = [10, 28, 18, 20]

plt.figure(figsize=(8, 4))

plt.bar(x - 0.2, values1, width=0.4, label="2024")
plt.bar(x + 0.2, values2, width=0.4, label="2025")

plt.xticks(x, names)
plt.legend()
plt.show()

Stacked Bar Chart

Useful when you want to compare multiple categories.

values1 = [12, 30, 22, 17]
values2 = [10, 20, 15, 5]

plt.bar(names, values1, label="Male")
plt.bar(names, values2, bottom=values1, label="Female")

plt.legend()
plt.show()
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