Creating Interactive Matplotlib Plots in Tkinter with Clear and Replot Functionality

Описание: Discover how to integrate `Matplotlib` plots in a `Tkinter` canvas and learn effective methods to clear and update your plots with interactive buttons!
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/65544881/ asked by the user 'HConBike' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/14929381/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/65547625/ provided by the user 'JacksonPro' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/12198502/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: Clearing and plotting mathplot figure on tkinter

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/l...
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
Creating Interactive Matplotlib Plots in Tkinter with Clear and Replot Functionality

In the world of programming, combining different libraries often leads to powerful applications. One common scenario is embedding Matplotlib plots into a Tkinter window. However, developers sometimes face challenges with clearing and updating these plots interactively. In this post, we will explore how to create a Tkinter application that not only displays plots but also allows users to clear them on-demand.

The Problem

You may find yourself in a situation where you want to display a plot in a Tkinter window using Matplotlib, and you need the flexibility to clear this plot when a user hits a button. The primary challenge here is that a direct method to clear a Matplotlib figure from a Tkinter canvas doesn’t exist, leading to confusion for many developers.

Key Questions:

How can you display a plot in a Tkinter canvas?

What is the best way to clear that plot?

The Solution

Step 1: Initialize Your Environment

Start by importing the necessary libraries. You'll need Tkinter for the GUI and Matplotlib for plotting.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 2: Create the Main Plot Function

Next, let's create a function to generate and display the plot. This function will also need to save a reference to the FigureCanvasTkAgg instance to facilitate clearing the plot later.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 3: Implement the Clear Functionality

Now, you’ll want to create a function that can clear the plot. Since the plot is essentially a widget, you can use the destroy() method, which allows you to remove the widget from the canvas. Here's how you can accomplish that:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Alternatively, if you only want to hide the plot temporarily instead of removing it entirely:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 4: Build the Tkinter GUI

Now, you can begin building your actual Tkinter application that incorporates these functions.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined above, you should now have a functional Tkinter application that displays a Matplotlib plot and allows users to clear it at will. This interactive feature enhances the user experience, making it easy to update visual data without needing to restart the application.

Final Tips:

Always maintain global references to your canvas or plot instances if you plan to manipulate them later.

Experiment with different plotting styles and data to further enhance your GUI.

Happy coding!