Matplotlib plots not showing in VS Code

Question

I am running Windows 10 and when I run a script that use matplotlib.pyplot to create a plot, no plot is created if I run in the embedded terminal (either bash or powershell) in vscode. However, the figure window is shown in my task bar but I cannot open it.

I still get a plot when I run the script in jupyter. I also get a plot window when I run the script in the 'Terminal' app. So, I figured this problem has something to do with vscode.

The code I use is really simple:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

x = [1, 1]
plt.plot(x)
plt.show()

Solution 1

When you are plotting a graph in a script, make sure to use the following command to output the window displaying the graph.

plt.show()

By default, Jupyter outputs the graph, even when plt.show() is not explicitly called.

Solution 2

In Visual Studio Code Jupyter Notebooks you may see something like this:

in order to show the plot you may click on the

</>

symbol to the left and change the the mime type to image/png (Jupyter renderer).
Now the plot appears.

Solution 3

Try the latest version of matplotlib

pip install matplotlib --upgrade

This works good for me.

Comments

[David Zanger]

I'm already using plt.show() but it still does not work. It just creates the window but with no plot. I also can not open the window, it is just in the task bar.

[Admin]

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