Label and style an axis
Improve readability of a chart by setting a descriptive y-axis title and controlling gridlines.
Plotly · Module
fig.update_yaxes
Updates one or more y-axes on a Plotly graph-object Figure. Use keyword arguments to set layout.yaxis properties such as titles, ranges, grid visibility, and tick formatting.
How it works
Call this method on a graph-object Figure to modify properties of one or more y-axes. Supply axis properties as keyword arguments; for figures with multiple axes, selector arguments can target which axes are changed.
Syntax
fig.update_yaxes(**kwargs)Parameters
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
**kwargs | keyword arguments | Axis layout properties supplied as keyword arguments, including title_text, range, showgrid, visible, position, and other layout.yaxis attributes. |
Returns
A Plotly graph-object Figure with the requested y-axis properties updated.
Key points
- Use range with two values to control the displayed lower and upper bounds.
- The position property places a free y-axis using normalized plot coordinates.
- autoshift can reposition an axis to reduce overlap among axes sharing an overlaying value.
Common mistakes
- For logarithmic axes, provide range endpoints in logarithmic coordinates rather than the original data values.
- The position setting does nothing unless the y-axis is independently anchored.
- Setting visible to false hides the visual axis but does not remove interactive dragging.
Example: Configure a y-axis
import plotly.express as px
fig = px.scatter(x=[1, 2, 3], y=[10, 20, 15])
fig.update_yaxes(title_text="Value", range=[0, 25], showgrid=True)
fig.show()Creates a scatter plot and changes several properties of its y-axis.
When to use it
Control displayed range
Focus a chart on a meaningful interval by explicitly setting its y-axis bounds.
Customize subplot axes
Configure faceted or multi-axis figures by applying consistent y-axis settings across selected axes.
Interview questions
QWhat does fig.update_yaxes do?
It updates nested properties on one or more y-axes of a graph-object Figure. Keyword arguments correspond to layout.yaxis properties, such as title_text, range, and showgrid.
Follow-up: How would you apply one change to selected axes in a multi-axis figure? Use the method's selector-related arguments to restrict which y-axes receive the update.
QHow are y-axis properties supplied?
Pass axis properties as keyword arguments, for example fig.update_yaxes(title_text="Value", showgrid=False). The method is intended for updating multiple nested axis properties without directly editing the layout dictionary.
Follow-up: How can you update axes in a faceted figure? Apply the method to the figure and use its axis-selection options when a subset rather than every y-axis should change.
QWhat should you watch for when setting range?
The range property accepts a two-value list defining the axis bounds. For a logarithmic axis, the bounds must be expressed after taking the logarithm of the desired data limits.
Follow-up: What alternative can preserve a fixed visual relationship between axes? Configure the relevant axis scale or anchoring properties, including scaleanchor where appropriate.
Related
fig.update_xaxesfig.for_each_yaxisfig.update_layoutlayout.yaxis