Matplotlib supports plots with time on the horizontal (x) axis. The data values will be put on the vertical (y) axis. In this article we'll demonstrate that using a few examples.

It is required to use the Python datetime module, a standard module.

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Plot time You can plot time using a timestamp:

import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import datetime
# create data
y = [ 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20 ]
x = [datetime.datetime.now() + datetime.timedelta(hours=i) for i in range(len(y))]
# plot
plt.plot(x,y)
plt.gcf().autofmt_xdate()
plt.show()

If you want to change the interval use one of the lines below:

# minutes
x = [datetime.datetime.now() + datetime.timedelta(minutes=i) for i in range(len(y))]

Time plot from specific hour/minute

To start from a specific date, create a new timestamp using datetime.datetime(year, month, day, hour, minute). Full example:

import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import datetime
# create data
customdate = datetime.datetime(2016, 1, 1, 13, 30)
y = [ 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20 ]
x = [customdate + datetime.timedelta(hours=i) for i in range(len(y))]
# plot
plt.plot(x,y)
plt.gcf().autofmt_xdate()
plt.show()