Bar Chart Race

Make animated bar and line chart races in Python with matplotlib or plotly.

Official Documentation

Visit the bar_chart_race official documentation for detailed usage instructions.

Installation

Install with either:

• pip install bar_chart_race
• conda install -c conda-forge bar_chart_race

Quickstart

Must begin with a pandas DataFrame containing 'wide' data where:

• Every row represents a single period of time
• Each column holds the value for a particular category
• The index contains the time component (optional)

The data below is an example of properly formatted data. It shows total deaths from COVID-19 for several countries by date.

Create bar and line chart races

There are three core functions available to construct the animations.

• bar_chart_race
• bar_chart_race_plotly
• line_chart_race

The above animation was created with the help of matplotlib using the following call to bar_chart_race.

import bar_chart_race as bcr
df = bcr.load_dataset('covid19_tutorial')
bcr.bar_chart_race(
        df=df, 
        filename='../docs/images/covid19_horiz.gif', 
        orientation='h', 
        sort='desc', 
        n_bars=8, 
        fixed_order=False, 
        fixed_max=True, 
        steps_per_period=20, 
        period_length=500, 
        end_period_pause=0,
        interpolate_period=False, 
        period_label={'x': .98, 'y': .3, 'ha': 'right', 'va': 'center'}, 
        period_template='%B %d, %Y', 
        period_summary_func=lambda v, r: {'x': .98, 'y': .2, 
                                          's': f'Total deaths: {v.sum():,.0f}', 
                                          'ha': 'right', 'size': 11}, 
        perpendicular_bar_func='median', 
        colors='dark12', 
        title='COVID-19 Deaths by Country', 
        bar_size=.95, 
        bar_textposition='inside',
        bar_texttemplate='{x:,.0f}', 
        bar_label_font=7, 
        tick_label_font=7, 
        tick_template='{x:,.0f}',
        shared_fontdict=None, 
        scale='linear', 
        fig=None, 
        writer=None, 
        bar_kwargs={'alpha': .7},
        fig_kwargs={'figsize': (6, 3.5), 'dpi': 144},
        filter_column_colors=False) 

Save animation to disk or embed into a Jupyter Notebook

If you are working within a Jupyter Notebook, leave the filename as None and it will be automatically embedded into a Jupyter Notebook.

bcr.bar_chart_race(df=df, filename=None)

Customization

There are many options to customize the bar chart race to get the animation you desire. Below, we have an animation where the maximum x-value and order of the bars are set for the entire duration. A custom summary label and perpendicular bar of the median is also added.

def period_summary(values, ranks):
    top2 = values.nlargest(2)
    leader = top2.index[0]
    lead = top2.iloc[0] - top2.iloc[1]
    s = f'{leader} by {lead:.0f}'
    return {'s': s, 'x': .99, 'y': .03, 'ha': 'right', 'size': 8}

df_baseball = bcr.load_dataset('baseball').pivot(index='year',
                                                 columns='name',
                                                 values='hr')
df_baseball.bcr.bar_chart_race(
                   period_length=1000,
                   fixed_max=True, 
                   fixed_order=True, 
                   n_bars=10,
                   period_summary_func=period_summary,
                   period_label={'x': .99, 'y': .1},
                   period_template='Season {x:,.0f}',
                   title='Top 10 Home Run Hitters by Season Played')