matplotlib ScalarFormatter mulitple figures

May 18, 2015

matplotlib.ticker.ScalarFormatter configures the colorbar and axes labels to not have too many decimal places.

ScalarFormatter Problem

If I made a standard line plot using the ScalarFormatter passed into a function, then subsequently passed the ScalarFormatter into another function that used colorbar, the line plot y-axis would be reset to match the limits of the later figure’s colorbar.

I didn’t think the ScalarFormatter would be able to feedback like that.

Fix ScalarFormatter

Enclose ScalarFormatter in its own function, then call that function from each of the plotting functions, thereby creating a new/unique ScalarFormatter for each figure.