Wrapping long y labels in matplotlib tight layout using setp

I’ve been trying to wrap text for long labels in my code. I tried the textwrap method suggested earlier here, but my code defines yticklabels through an array imported from a csv using the pyplot.setp() method. I’m using tight_layout() for the formatting otherwise.

So the question is – is there a way to wrap the really long y labels to newlines easily?

Here is some sample code that I’d like a fix for:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

labels=('Really really really really really really long label 1', 'Really really really really really really long label 2', 'Really really really really really really long label 3')
values=(30,50,40)

fig = plt.figure()
ax=fig.add_subplot(111)

plt.ylim((0,40))
for i in np.arange(3):
    plt.barh(15*i, values[i])

plt.yticks(15*np.arange(3))
plt.setp(ax.set_yticklabels(labels))

plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()

This plots something like this

I’d like the labels to go to newlines after a fixed width. Any ideas?

Answers:

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Method 1

I have tried using textwrap on the labels and it works for me.

from textwrap import wrap
labels=['Really really really really really really long label 1',
        'Really really really really really really long label 2',
        'Really really really really really really long label 3']
labels = [ 'n'.join(wrap(l, 20)) for l in labels ]

Inserting this in your code gives us:

Method 2

If you are looking for a fast way to wrap your labels dynamically, you can simply replace ' ' by 'n' like this :

wrapped_labels = [ label.replace(' ', 'n') for label in labels ]

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0