What are some reasons to apply linestyles and markers on a graph?

Question

What are some reasons to apply linestyles and markers on a graph?

Answer

Generally, linestyles and markers are applied to make the lines on a graph easier to understand, and to mark specific points on the graph clearly.

For example, say that we wanted to see the growth of a stock price over time, but also wanted to see its value for the first day of each month clearly. By using markers on a line, we can see both the progression of the price over time, and also see the precise points for the prices each first day of each month. In a way, the line part lets us see the overall progression of x vs y, while markers let us see precise values at specific points, like checkpoints.

Linestyles and markers are especially helpful to apply when you start to have many lines plotted on the same graph, because it may become harder to distinguish them.

Furthermore, line styles and markers are not absolutely necessary all the time, but including them can make a graph easier to understand and give it a more professional feeling. Do what works for you!

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How to show integer on axes? I have added “int” before months, but it didn’t show in the result

plt.subplot(1, 2, 1)
plt.plot(int(months), temperature)

plt.subplot(1, 2, 2)
plt.plot(temperature, flights_to_hawaii, "o")

plt.show()

I was confused with Marker but you have not only explained but also the difference between Linestyle and Markers.

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Different types of Markers and their Keywords

marker	symbol	description
"."	m00	point
","	m01	pixel
"o"	m02	circle
"v"	m03	triangle_down
"^"	m04	triangle_up
"<"	m05	triangle_left
">"	m06	triangle_right
"1"	m07	tri_down
"2"	m08	tri_up
"3"	m09	tri_left
"4"	m10	tri_right
"8"	m11	octagon
"s"	m12	square
"p"	m13	pentagon
"P"	m23	plus (filled)
"*"	m14	star
"h"	m15	hexagon1
"H"	m16	hexagon2
"+"	m17	plus
"x"	m18	x
"X"	m24	x (filled)
"D"	m19	diamond
"d"	m20	thin_diamond
"|"	m21	vline
"_"	m22	hline
0 (TICKLEFT)	m25	tickleft
1 (TICKRIGHT)	m26	tickright
2 (TICKUP)	m27	tickup
3 (TICKDOWN)	m28	tickdown
4 (CARETLEFT)	m29	caretleft
5 (CARETRIGHT)	m30	caretright
6 (CARETUP)	m31	caretup
7 (CARETDOWN)	m32	caretdown
8 (CARETLEFTBASE)	m33	caretleft (centered at base)
9 (CARETRIGHTBASE)	m34	caretright (centered at base)
10 (CARETUPBASE)	m35	caretup (centered at base)
11 (CARETDOWNBASE)	m36	caretdown (centered at base)
"None", " " or ""	 	nothing
'$...$'	m37	Render the string using mathtext. E.g "$f$" for marker showing the letter f.
verts	 	A list of (x, y) pairs used for Path vertices. The center of the marker is located at (0, 0) and the size is normalized, such that the created path is encapsulated inside the unit cell.
path	 	A Path instance.
(numsides, 0, angle)	 	A regular polygon with numsides sides, rotated by angle.
(numsides, 1, angle)	 	A star-like symbol with numsides sides, rotated by angle.
(numsides, 2, angle)	 	An asterisk with numsides sides, rotated by angle.

Markers and Their Keywords

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