I usually make labels for bars in the following manner using parameter 'label' in the method 'bar'.
axes[0].bar(x, y, bar_width, label='abc')
axes[0].legend()
Now I'd like to plot violin plots and make label for each collection as follows, but it doesn't work since 'violinplot' doesn't have the parameter 'label'.
axes[0].violinplot(data1, label='abc1')
axes[1].violinplot(data2, label='abc2')
Can anyone help me out to make a label for each collection?
As it was mentioned in comment, some plots in matplotlib don't support legends. Documentation still provides a simple way to add custom legends for them: http://matplotlib.org/users/legend_guide.html#proxy-legend-handles
Main idea : add 'fake' objects, which can be not shown in the plot, then use it to form a handles list for legend method.
import random
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as pl
import matplotlib.patches as mpatches
from itertools import repeat
red_patch = mpatches.Patch(color='red')
# 'fake' invisible object
pos = [1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8]
label = ['plot 1','plot2','ghi','jkl','mno','pqr']
data = [np.random.normal(size=100) for i in pos]
fake_handles = repeat(red_patch, len(pos))
pl.figure()
ax = pl.subplot(111)
pl.violinplot(data, pos, vert=False)
ax.legend(fake_handles, label)
pl.show()