Legend with vertical line in matplotlib

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I need to show a vertical line in a matplotlib legend for a specific reason. I am trying to make matplotlib understand that I want a vertical line with the lines.Line2D(x,y) but this is clearly not working.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib import lines
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot([0,0],[0,3])
lgd = []
lgd.append(lines.Line2D([0,0],[0,1], color = 'blue', label = 'Vertical line'))
plt.legend(handles = lgd)

enter image description here

I need the line to appear vertical, not the legend. Can anyone help?

2 Answers

You can use the vertical line marker when making your line2D object. A list of valid markers can be found here.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib import lines

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot([0,0],[0,3])

vertical_line = lines.Line2D([], [], color='#1f77b4', marker='|', linestyle='None',
                          markersize=10, markeredgewidth=1.5, label='Vertical line')

plt.legend(handles = [vertical_line])

plt.show()

enter image description here

Mark all lines vertically

If the aim is to get every line marked vertically instead of horizontally in the legend, you could update the legend handle via the handler_map.

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.legend_handler import HandlerLine2D

plt.plot([1,3,2], label='something')
plt.plot([.5,.5], [1,3], label='something else')

def update_prop(handle, orig):
    handle.update_from(orig)
    x,y = handle.get_data()
    handle.set_data([np.mean(x)]*2, [0, 2*y[0]])

plt.legend(handler_map={plt.Line2D:HandlerLine2D(update_func=update_prop)})

plt.show()

enter image description here

Replicate line in miniature form

If the aim is to get a miniature version of the plotted line in the legend, you may in principle use this answer to Using a miniature version of the plotted data as the legend handle. There is a slight modification needed to account for a possibly 0 width bounding box though, which I now also edited into the original answer. Here, it would look like:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.legend_handler import HandlerLine2D
import matplotlib.path as mpath
from matplotlib.transforms import BboxTransformFrom, BboxTransformTo, Bbox


class HandlerMiniatureLine(HandlerLine2D):
    def create_artists(self, legend, orig_handle,
                       xdescent, ydescent, width, height, fontsize,
                       trans):

        legline, _ = HandlerLine2D.create_artists(self,legend, orig_handle,
                                xdescent, ydescent, width, height, fontsize, trans)

        legline.set_data(*orig_handle.get_data())

        ext = mpath.get_paths_extents([orig_handle.get_path()])
        if ext.width == 0:
            ext.x0 -= 0.1
            ext.x1 += 0.1
        bbox0 = BboxTransformFrom(ext)
        bbox1 = BboxTransformTo(Bbox.from_bounds(xdescent, ydescent, width, height))

        legline.set_transform(bbox0 + bbox1 + trans)
        return legline,


plt.plot([1,3,2], label='something')
plt.plot([.5,.5], [1,3], label='something else')

plt.legend(handler_map={plt.Line2D:HandlerMiniatureLine()})

plt.show()

enter image description here

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