Box plots in 538 style

boxen.py

# Pylab BOXPLOTS in 538 style
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import itertools

def box_plot(boxes, figsize=(5,4), ymax=None, title=None, xlabels=[]):

    def setBoxColors(bp):
        colours = ["#30a2da","#6d904f","#8b8b8b","#fc4f30","#e5ae38"]
        n_boxes = len(bp['boxes'])
        fte = list(itertools.islice(itertools.cycle(colours), n_boxes))
        lw = (2,3)
        for ix in range(n_boxes):
            setp(bp['boxes'][ix], color=fte[ix], linewidth=lw[1])
            setp(bp['medians'][ix], color=fte[ix], linewidth=lw[1])
            setp(bp['fliers'][ix], marker='None')
            setp(bp['caps'][ix*2], color=fte[ix], linewidth=lw[1])
            setp(bp['caps'][ix*2+1], color=fte[ix], linewidth=lw[1])
            setp(bp['whiskers'][ix*2], color=fte[ix], linewidth=lw[0])
            setp(bp['whiskers'][ix*2+1], color=fte[ix], linewidth=lw[0])
    
    def positions(num_boxes):
        return [x for x in range(-1, 99, 3)][1:num_boxes+1]
    
    # setup
    fig = figure(figsize=figsize)
    ax = axes()
    hold(True)
    
    # multiple boxplots with different colours
    bp = boxplot(boxes, positions=positions(len(boxes)), widths=2)
    setBoxColors(bp)
    
    # set axes limits and labels
    xlim(0, 1+len(boxes)*3)
    if ymax:
        ylim(0, ymax)
    if title:
        ax.set_title(title)
    if len(xlabels) > 0:
        ax.set_xticklabels(xlabels)
        
    show()