[SciPy-User] getting started with arrays and matplotlib

[Dav Clark]

On Aug 7, 2011, at 2:22 PM, Chris Withers wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> I'm a new user returning to SciPy after quite a long break, so, a few 
> high-level questions first:
> 
> - Are there any good books or other narrative docs that cover the bulk 
> of the core numpy stuff
> 

> - Ditto, but for visualisation, particularly with matplotlib or the 
> Enthought visualisation suites.


Well, this is probably more basic than you want, but O'Reilly's "Data Analysis with Open Source Tools" is certainly a nice low-level intro for a beginner:

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596802363

It's available on Safari Bookshelf, and also talks about using matplotlib (and R and GSL and ...). I'm unaware of any nice Chaco "narratives."


> Now, first question: what's the best way to build this array given that 
> I may only see the arrival of a new venue a fair way through building 
> the data structure? How can I efficiently say "please add a new row to 
> my array", I don't know what the 4th dimension equivalent is ;-)

You might consider doing what matlab does under the hood and just double the array when you run out of space. You can also keep a view around that restricts to just the portion of the data that's "real."

> Secondly, once I've populated this, any good examples of how to turn it 
> into a bar chart? (the simple bar chart would be number of sales on the 
> y-axis, weeks before the event on the x-axis, however, what I'd then 
> like to do is split each bar into chunks for each venue's sales, if that 
> makes sense?)

The book above would do a good job with this.

Cheers,
Dav