Pycharm does not show a Matplotlib Plot issue [Solved]

# Pycharm does not show a Matplotlib Plot issue [Solved]

To resolve the issue where Pycharm doesn't show a Matplotlib plot, make sure to call the plt.show() method at the end of your code.

The method displays all open figures.

main.py

Copied!
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.plot([1, 2, 3, 4])
plt.ylabel('some numbers')


# 👇️ Call plt.show()
plt.show()

call plt show method

You can run your code in Pycharm by clicking on the green triangle button at the top right corner or by pressing Shift + F10.

Once you click on the button, the plot is shown.

plot is shown

Make sure you have installed the matplotlib module by running the following command.

shell

Copied!
pip install matplotlib

# or with pip3
pip3 install matplotlib

Another thing you should check is that your import statement is correct.

# Make sure your import statement is correct

Make sure your import statement is import matplotlib.pyplot as plt to be able to call the plt.show() method as shown below.

main.py

Copied!
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.plot([1, 2, 3, 4])
plt.ylabel('some numbers')


# 👇️ call plt.show()
plt.show()

If the issue persists, try to set the block keyword argument to True when calling plt.show().

main.py

Copied!
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.plot([1, 2, 3, 4])
plt.ylabel('some numbers')


# 👇️ set block to True
plt.show(block=True)

Make sure to add the plt.show() call at the end of your code, after the plt.plot() method call.

The block keyword argument determines whether to wait for all figures to be closed before returning.

If set to True, then the blocking behavior runs the GUI main loop until all figure windows are closed.

The value of the block argument defaults to True in non-interactive mode and False in interactive mode.

In other words, if you've set plt.interactive(True), you might run into issues where the plot is not shown.

However, if you set block=True when calling plt.show(), the plot should be shown even in interactive mode.

If the issue persists, try to set the mode to non-interactive explicitly.

main.py

Copied!
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.plot([1, 2, 3, 4])
plt.ylabel('some numbers')


# 👇️ set block to True
plt.show(block=True)

# 👇️ set to non-interactive mode
plt.interactive(False)

The last line sets the mode to non-interactive.

In non-interactive mode:

pyplot.show() will block by default.
newly crated figures and changes to figures are not reflected until explicitly asked to be.

# Try setting a matplotlib backend

If the issue persists, try to set a matplotlib backend with the matplotlib.use() command.

main.py

Copied!
import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.plot([1, 2, 3, 4])
plt.ylabel('some numbers')

# 👇️ set tkinter backend
matplotlib.use('TkAgg')

# 👇️ call plt.show()
plt.show(block=True)

The matplotlib.use() method is used to select the backend that is used for rendering and GUI integration.

We used TkAgg for the backend - Agg rendering to a Tk canvas (requires Tkinter).

If you don't have Tkinter installed, follow the installation instructions in this article.

Alternatively, you can set the backend to QtAgg.

main.py

Copied!
matplotlib.use('QtAgg')

It enables Agg rendering in a Qt canvas and requires PyQT.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

I wrote a book in which I share everything I know about how to become a better, more efficient programmer.

You can use the search field on my Home Page to filter through all of my articles.

Pycharm does not show a Matplotlib Plot issue [Solved]