Managing multiple figures in pyplot

matplotlib.pyplot uses the concept of a current figure and current axes. Figures are identified via a figure number that is passed to figure. The figure with the given number is set as current figure. Additionally, if no figure with the number exists, a new one is created.

Note

We discourage working with multiple figures through the implicit pyplot interface because managing the current figure is cumbersome and error-prone. Instead, we recommend using the explicit approach and call methods on Figure and Axes instances. See Matplotlib Application Interfaces (APIs) for an explanation of the trade-offs between the implicit and explicit interfaces.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

t = np.arange(0.0, 2.0, 0.01)
s1 = np.sin(2*np.pi*t)
s2 = np.sin(4*np.pi*t)

Create figure 1

plt.figure(1)
plt.subplot(211)
plt.plot(t, s1)
plt.subplot(212)
plt.plot(t, 2*s1)

[<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f2d00e30a90>]

Create figure 2

plt.figure(2)
plt.plot(t, s2)

[<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f2cf9dc01f0>]

Now switch back to figure 1 and make some changes

plt.figure(1)
plt.subplot(211)
plt.plot(t, s2, 's')
ax = plt.gca()
ax.set_xticklabels([])

plt.show()