Plotting a temporal series using matplotlib

temporal_plot.py

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from datetime import date

#data


logic_tuple =  [(1936, 3), (1937, 6), (1938, 3), (1939, 5),
  (1940, 2), (1941, 2), (1942, 7), (1943, 1),
  (1944, 2), (1945, 2), (1947, 2), (1948, 4),
  (1949, 7), (1950, 3), (1951, 2), (1952, 5),
  (1953, 5), (1954, 7), (1955, 8), (1956, 7),
  (1957, 12), (1958, 18), (1959, 29), (1960, 41),
  (1961, 58), (1962, 72), (1963, 75), (1964, 69),
  (1965, 75), (1966, 68), (1967, 77), (1968, 85),
  (1969, 90), (1970, 96), (1971, 124), (1972, 175),
  (1973, 162), (1974, 178), (1975, 190), (1976, 187),
  (1977, 216), (1978, 192), (1979, 243), (1980, 211),
  (1981, 232), (1982, 212), (1983, 332), (1984, 364),
  (1985, 391), (1986, 530), (1987, 592), (1988, 716),
  (1989, 746), (1990, 861), (1991, 1052), (1992, 1106),
  (1993, 1222), (1994, 1361), (1995, 1228), (1996, 1306),
  (1997, 1297), (1998, 1308), (1999, 1365), (2000, 1412),
  (2001, 1403), (2002, 1473), (2003, 1576), (2004, 1781),
  (2005, 2077), (2006, 2139), (2007, 2403), (2008, 2479),
  (2009, 2457), (2010, 2497), (2011, 2673), (2012, 2827),
  (2013, 2636), (2014, 2781), (2015, 2809), (2016, 2548),
  (2017, 2100)]



ML_tuple = [(1936, 0), (1937, 0), (1938, 0), (1939, 0),
 (1940, 0), (1941, 0), (1942, 0), (1943, 0),
 (1944, 0), (1945, 0), (1947, 0), (1948, 0),
 (1949, 0), (1950, 0), (1951, 0), (1952, 0),
 (1953, 0), (1954, 0), (1955, 0), (1956, 0),
 (1957, 0), (1958, 1), (1959, 4), (1960, 0),
 (1961, 0), (1962, 2), (1963, 2), (1964, 1),
 (1965, 0), (1966, 2), (1967, 1), (1968, 0),
 (1969, 1), (1970, 0), (1971, 0), (1972, 0),
 (1973, 2), (1974, 5), (1975, 5), (1976, 0),
 (1977, 1), (1978, 0), (1979, 0), (1980, 0),
 (1981, 3), (1982, 1), (1983, 2), (1984, 4),
 (1985, 12), (1986, 30), (1987, 53), (1988, 45),
 (1989, 61), (1990, 43), (1991, 64), (1992, 75),
 (1993, 125), (1994, 120), (1995, 109), (1996, 109),
 (1997, 131), (1998, 129), (1999, 112), (2000, 133), 
 (2001, 204), (2002, 244), (2003, 253), (2004, 321),
 (2005, 350), (2006, 518), (2007, 459), (2008, 494),
 (2009, 583), (2010, 1632), (2011, 770), (2012, 917),
 (2013, 1058), (2014, 1254), (2015, 1534), (2016, 1975),
 (2017, 2938)]

years = [date(y, 1, 1) for (y, p) in logic_tuple]
logic_papers = [p for (y, p) in logic_tuple]
ML_papers = [p for (y, p) in ML_tuple]

assert len(years) == len(logic_papers) == len(ML_papers)

# plotting

fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, 1, figsize=(12, 12))
ax.grid(linewidth=0.4)
line1, = ax.plot_date(x=years, y=logic_papers, ls='-', label="papers on logic")
line2, = ax.plot_date(x=years, y=ML_papers, ls='-', label="papers on machine learning")
plt.legend(handles=[line1, line2], loc=2, fontsize=18)
fig.suptitle("Papers from 1936 to 2017", fontsize=24, fontweight='bold')

ax.set_xlabel("year", fontsize=20)
ax.set_ylabel('number of papers', fontsize=20)

name_path = "Logic_ML.png"
plt.savefig(name_path)