How to get all the legends from a plot in Matplotlib?

To get all the legends from a plot in matplotlib, we can use the get_children() method to get all the properties of an axis, then iterate through them. If an item is an instance of a Legend, we can extract the legend texts.

Steps

• Set the figure size and adjust the padding between subplots.

• Create x data points using numpy.

• Create a figure and a set of subplots.

• Plot sin(x) and cos(x) using plot() method with different labels and colors.

• Get the children of the axis and extract the texts of the legend.

• Display the figure using show() method.

Example

Here's how to extract all legend information from a matplotlib plot ?

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib

# Set figure parameters
plt.rcParams["figure.figsize"] = [7.50, 3.50]
plt.rcParams["figure.autolayout"] = True

# Create data points
x = np.linspace(-10, 10, 100)
fig, ax = plt.subplots()

# Plot functions with labels
ax.plot(np.sin(x), color='red', lw=7, label="y=sin(x)")
ax.plot(np.cos(x), color='orange', lw=7, label="y=cos(x)")

# Create legend
plt.legend(loc='upper right')

# Get all legend texts from the plot
for item in ax.get_children():
    if isinstance(item, matplotlib.legend.Legend):
        print("Legend texts:", [text.get_text() for text in item.texts])

plt.show()

The output will show the legend texts and display the plot ?

Legend texts: ['y=sin(x)', 'y=cos(x)']

Alternative Method Using get_legend()

You can also directly access the legend using the get_legend() method ?

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# Create sample plot
x = np.linspace(-10, 10, 100)
fig, ax = plt.subplots()

ax.plot(np.sin(x), color='red', label="sine")
ax.plot(np.cos(x), color='blue', label="cosine")
ax.plot(np.tan(x), color='green', label="tangent")

plt.legend()

# Get legend directly
legend = ax.get_legend()
if legend:
    legend_labels = [text.get_text() for text in legend.get_texts()]
    print("Legend labels:", legend_labels)

plt.ylim(-2, 2)  # Limit y-axis for better visualization
plt.show()

Legend labels: ['sine', 'cosine', 'tangent']

Comparison

Conclusion

Use get_legend() for direct access to a single legend, or get_children() when you need to find all legends in complex plots. Both methods allow you to extract legend text and properties programmatically.