🎻 Seaborn Violin Plot

Last Updated: 07 Nov 2025

A violin plot is a combination of box plot + KDE (smooth density curve). It shows:

Median, Quartiles (like boxplot)
Shape of distribution (like KDE)

Hinglish Tip 🗣: Box plot se zyada detail chahiye ho — data ka shape bhi dekhna ho — toh violin plot best.

Basic Syntax

sns.violinplot(data=df, x='category', y='numeric')
plt.show()

📘 Example Dataset

df = sns.load_dataset('tips')
df.head()

🎻 Basic Violin Plot

sns.violinplot(data=df, x='day', y='total_bill')
plt.show()

Important Parameters

data, x, y Category on X-axis, numeric on Y-axis.
hue Split violins by category.

sns.violinplot(data=df, x='day', y='total_bill', hue='sex')
plt.show()

split Show two distributions in one violin (works with hue having 2 categories).

sns.violinplot(data=df, x='day', y='total_bill', hue='sex', split=True)
plt.show()

palette Change colors.

sns.violinplot(data=df, x='day', y='total_bill', palette='magma')
plt.show()

bw (Bandwidth) Controls smoothness of KDE. (Smaller = sharper, Larger = smoother)

sns.violinplot(data=df, x='day', y='total_bill', bw=0.2)
plt.show()

cut Extent of violin beyond data range.

sns.violinplot(data=df, x='day', y='total_bill', cut=0)
plt.show()

inner What to show inside violin:
- 'box' (default)
- 'quartile'
- 'point'
- 'stick'
- None

sns.violinplot(data=df, x='day', y='total_bill', inner='quartile')
plt.show()

linewidth Outline thickness.

sns.violinplot(data=df, x='day', y='total_bill', linewidth=2)
plt.show()

scale How width of violin is scaled:'area','count','width'

sns.violinplot(data=df, x='day', y='total_bill', scale='width')
plt.show()

⭐ Full Example

sns.violinplot(
    data=df,
    x='day',
    y='total_bill',
    hue='sex',
    split=True,
    palette='viridis',
    bw=0.3,
    inner='quartile',
    linewidth=1.5,
    scale='width',
    cut=0
)
plt.show()

Quick Practice

Load penguins dataset.
Plot species vs body_mass_g.
Add hue='sex'.
Set split=True.
Change inner='stick'.

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