> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://vecco-insight.gitbook.io/crash-visualization/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://vecco-insight.gitbook.io/crash-visualization/matplotlib/basic-plot.md).

# 3.1 Basic Concepts

### 1.  Figure and Axes 

For all Matplotlib plots, we start by creating a figure and axes. In their simplest form, a figure and axes can be created as follows:

```
fig = plt.figure()
ax = plt.axes()
```

![ Blank Figure](/files/-MBPRUJc_jmSYfZe0oV0)

For better understanding **axes**, here is an example, we can plot several axes in one figure

```
fig = plt.figure(figsize  = (12,6))   # create a figure and set figure size
ax1= plt.axes()                       # create the first axes
ax2 = plt.axes([0.5, 0.5, 0.3, 0.3])   # create the second axes   
ax3 = plt.axes([0.2,0.2,0.2,0.2])      # create the third axes
```

![ Axes](/files/-MBPTJxy_usi97WlYcxY)

### 2. Oriented Object 

Matplotlib graphs your data on [`Figure`](https://matplotlib.org/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.figure.Figure.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure)s (i.e., windows, Jupyter widgets, etc.), each of which can contain one or more [`Axes`](https://matplotlib.org/api/axes_api.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes) (i.e., an area where points can be specified in terms of x-y coordinates. It's called **object-oriented.** In other words, you need to create objects.

```
fig, ax = plt.subplots()  # Create a figure containing a single axes
x = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
ax.plot(x, np.sin(x)) # plot a sine line on the axes
```

![ Simple Oriented Object way](/files/-MBPSV2l3EgM_K6Tcm4L)

{% hint style="warning" %}
According to the last chapter,   could you find the flaw of the chart?
{% endhint %}

### 3.  Pyplot 

There is a corresponding function in the [`matplotlib.pyplot`](https://matplotlib.org/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.html#module-matplotlib.pyplot) module that performs that plot on the "current" axes, creating that axes (and its parent figure) if they don't exist. So the previous example can be written more shortly as

```
plt.plot([1,2,3,4],[3,2,3,4])  # pyplot way
```

As noted above, there are essentially two ways to use Matplotlib:

* Explicitly create figures and axes, and call methods on them (the "object-oriented (OO) style").
* Rely on `pyplot` to automatically create and manage the figures and axes, and use `pyplot` functions for plotting.

{% hint style="info" %}
If you forget the elements of plot, find it [**here**](https://app.gitbook.com/@ivy-wang/s/crash-visulisation/~/drafts/-MBLFg0lOJc2yNX6jGoq/visualisation-in-python/matplotlib#parts-of-figure)
{% endhint %}