Shanto Roy

I Explore Research, Tech, Travel, and Business. SRE @Charles Schwab.

4 minute read

Bar plots using Latex PGFPlot

Previously, I used to include plots as a figure generated using python matplotlib. However, recently, while working on a paper, my supervisor wanted us to include plots in the paper using latex pgfplot. It is convenient to use these plots if we need to change conference/journal templates without worrying about image quality/configurations. In this post, I have added latex codes to create bar plots using latex pgfplot. Regardless to say, codes have been included for note purpose and collected from our paper and online resources.

Find outputs in this Overleaf Document.

A simple Bar Plot

Here, we plot a simple bar chart having data from a CSV file.

Prerequisite Configuration

The CSV file had 100 entries. But, I included first 20 rows. For that I needed to include an extra rule as follows:

\pgfplotsset{select coords between index/.style 2 args={
    x filter/.code={
        \ifnum\coordindex<#1\def\pgfmathresult{}\fi
        \ifnum\coordindex>#2\def\pgfmathresult{}\fi
    }
}}

Bar Plot Code

\begin{figure}
    \centering
\pgfplotstableread[col sep=comma,]{100SalesRecords.csv}\datatable
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    ybar,
    bar width=.1cm,
    width=\textwidth,
    height=10cm,
    ymin = 0,
    xtick=data,
    xticklabels from table={\datatable}{Country},
    x tick label style={font=\normalsize, rotate=90, anchor=east},
    ylabel={Units Sold in Number}]
    \addplot [select coords between index={1}{20}] table [x expr=\coordindex, y={Units Sold}]{\datatable};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{Units sold by Different countries}
\label{fig:my_label}
\end{figure}

Group Plotting

Prerequisites

The following configuration has been collected from our recent paper.

\pgfplotsset{
SmallBarPlot/.style={
    font=\footnotesize,
    ybar,
    width=\linewidth,
    ymin=0,
    xtick=data,
    xticklabel style={text width=1.5cm, rotate=90, align=center}
},
BlueBars/.style={
    fill=blue!20, bar width=0.25
},
RedBars/.style={
    fill=red!20, bar width=0.25
}
}

\DeclareRobustCommand\legendbox[1]{(\textcolor{#1}{#1}~\begin{tikzpicture}[x=0.2cm, y=0.2cm] \draw [color=black, fill=#1!20] (0,0) -- (0,1) -- (0.6,1) -- (0.6,0) -- (0, 0); \end{tikzpicture})}

Simple Group Bar Plotting

\begin{figure}[ht!]
\pgfplotstableread[col sep = comma]{100SalesRecords.csv}\table
\centering
    \begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[
            SmallBarPlot,
            xticklabels from table={\table}{Country},
            ylabel=Value in Number,
            xlabel=Countries
        ]
        \addplot [BlueBars] [select coords between index={1}{5}] table [x expr=\coordindex, y=Units Sold] {\table};
        \addlegendentry{First}
        \addplot [RedBars] [select coords between index={1}{5}] table [x expr=\coordindex, y=Unit Price] {\table};
        \addlegendentry{Second}
        \legend{}
    \end{axis}
    \end{tikzpicture}
\caption{The first legend \legendbox{blue} and the second one \legendbox{red}}
\label{fig:multiBar}
\end{figure}

Subplots with Group Plotting

Prerequisite

The previous configurations.

Subplotting with group bars

The second subplot includes logarithmic scale.

\begin{figure}[ht!]
\pgfplotstableread[col sep = comma]{100SalesRecords.csv}\table
\centering
\begin{subfigure}[b]{.5\linewidth}
    \centering
    \begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[
            SmallBarPlot,
            xticklabels from table={\table}{Country},
            ylabel=Value in Number,
            xlabel=Countries
        ]
        \addplot [BlueBars] [select coords between index={1}{5}] table [x expr=\coordindex, y=Units Sold] {\table};
        \addlegendentry{First}
        \addplot [RedBars] [select coords between index={1}{5}] table [x expr=\coordindex, y=Unit Price] {\table};
        \addlegendentry{Second}
        \legend{}
    \end{axis}
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{subfigure}%
\begin{subfigure}[b]{.5\linewidth}
     \centering
    \begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[
            SmallBarPlot,
            xticklabels from table={\table}{Country},
            ylabel= ylabel=Value in Number,
            xlabel=Countries,
            ymode=log,
            log basis y={10}
        ]
        \addplot [BlueBars] [select coords between index={1}{5}] table [x expr=\coordindex, y=Total Revenue] {\table};
        \addlegendentry{First}
        \addplot [RedBars] [select coords between index={1}{5}] table [x expr=\coordindex, y=Total Cost] {\table};
        \addlegendentry{Second}
        \legend{}
    \end{axis}
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{subfigure}
\caption{The first legend \legendbox{blue} and the second one \legendbox{red}.}
\label{fig:subBarPlot}
\end{figure}

Happy Documentation and writing papers.

You can find a comprehensive list of Latex resources in the following post:

Latex Resources in a Nutshell

If you are a new Latex user, check out this post: 20 Most Common Mistakes Made by New Latex Users

You can find all Latex oriented posts of mine in: https://shantoroy.com/categories/#latex

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