How to plot two histograms together in Matplotlib?

Difficulty Level : Expert
Last Updated : 11 Dec, 2020

Prerequisites:

Matplotlib

The histogram is the graphical representation that organizes grouped data points into the specified range. Creating the histogram provides the visual representation of data distribution. By using a histogram we can represent the large amount of data and it’s frequency as one continuous plot.

Function used

For creating the Histogram in Matplotlib we use hist() function which belongs to pyplot module. For plotting two histograms together, we have to use hist() function separately with two datasets by giving some setting.

Syntax:

matplotlib.pyplot.hist(x, bins, edgecolor color, label)

Parameter:

Parameter	Description
x	Array or dataset for plotting the histogram
bins	Integer values or sequence, used for intervals
edgecolor or ec	Sets the edge color of histogram bars
color	Sets the bar color of histogram bars
label	Used to represent the label of the histogram it is of string type.
alpha	Used for setting amount of transparency.
label	Used to represent the name or label of the histogram.

Approach

Import module
Create or load data for two datasets
Plot histogram with both dataframes separately
Plot them together

Example 1:

Python

# importing libraries
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
  
# generating two series of random 
# values using numpy random module 
# of shape (500,1)
series1 = np.random.randn(500, 1)
series2 = np.random.randn(400, 1)
  
# plotting first histogram
plt.hist(series1)
  
# plotting second histogram
plt.hist(series2)
  
# Showing the plot using plt.show()
plt.show()

Output:

Example 2:

Python

# importing libraries
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from numpy.lib.histograms import histogram
  
# generating two series of random values 
# using numpy random module of shape (500,1)
series1 = np.random.randn(500, 1)
series2 = np.random.randn(400, 1)
  
# plotting first histogram
plt.hist(series1, label='series1', alpha=.8, edgecolor='red')
  
# plotting second histogram
plt.hist(series2, label='series2', alpha=0.7, edgecolor='yellow')
plt.legend()
  
# Showing the plot using plt.show()
plt.show()

Output:

Example 3: Histograms representing two age groups

Python

# importing libraries
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
  
# giving two age groups data
age_g1 = [1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 17, 18, 16, 19, 21,
          23, 28, 30, 31, 33, 38, 32, 40, 45, 
          43, 49, 55, 53, 63, 66, 85, 80, 57, 
          75, 93, 95]
  
age_g2 = [6, 4, 15, 17, 19, 21, 28, 23, 31, 36,
          39, 32, 50, 56, 59, 74, 79, 34, 98, 97,
          95, 67, 69, 92, 45, 55, 77, 76, 85]
  
# plotting first histogram
plt.hist(age_g1, label='Age group1', alpha=.7, edgecolor='red')
  
# plotting second histogram
plt.hist(age_g2, label='Age group2', alpha=0.7, edgecolor='yellow')
plt.legend()
  
# Showing the plot using plt.show()
plt.show()

Output:

Example 4:

Python

# importing libraries
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
  
# giving two age groups data
age_g1 = [1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 17, 18, 16, 19,
          21, 23, 28, 30, 31, 33, 38, 32, 
          40, 45, 43, 49, 55, 53, 63, 66, 
          85, 80, 57, 75, 93, 95]
  
age_g2 = [6, 4, 15, 17, 19, 21, 28, 23, 31, 
          36, 39, 32, 50, 56, 59, 74, 79, 34, 
          98, 97, 95, 67, 69, 92, 45, 55, 77,
          76, 85]
  
# plotting first histogram
plt.hist(age_g1, label='Age group1', bins=14, alpha=.7, edgecolor='red')
  
# plotting second histogram
plt.hist(age_g2, label="Age group2", bins=14, alpha=.7, edgecolor='yellow')
plt.legend()
  
# Showing the plot using plt.show()
plt.show()

Output:

Example 5: Changing bar color from default

Python

# importing libraries
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
  
# giving two age groups data
age_g1 = [1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 17, 18, 16, 19, 21,
          23, 28, 30, 31, 33, 38, 32, 40, 45, 
          43, 49, 55, 53, 63, 66, 85, 80, 57, 
          75, 93, 95]
  
age_g2 = [6, 4, 15, 17, 19, 21, 28, 23, 31, 36,
          39, 32, 50, 56, 59, 74, 79, 34, 98, 97,
          95, 67, 69, 92, 45, 55, 77, 76, 85]
  
# plotting first histogram
plt.hist(age_g1, label='Age group1', alpha=.7, color='red')
  
# plotting second histogram
plt.hist(age_g2, label="Age group2", alpha=.5,
         edgecolor='black', color='yellow')
plt.legend()
  
# Showing the plot using plt.show()
plt.show()