Matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xscale() in Python

Last Updated : 12 Jul, 2025

Matplotlib is a library in Python and it is numerical - mathematical extension for NumPy library. The Axes Class contains most of the figure elements: Axis, Tick, Line2D, Text, Polygon, etc., and sets the coordinate system. And the instances of Axes supports callbacks through a callbacks attribute.

matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xscale() Function

The Axes.set_xscale() function in axes module of matplotlib library is used to set the x-axis scale.

Syntax: Axes.set_xscale(self, value, **kwargs) Parameters: This method accepts the following parameters.

value : This parameter is the axis scale type to apply.

**kwargs: There are different keyword arguments which are accepted and its depend on the scale.

Below examples illustrate the matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xscale() function in matplotlib.axes: Example 1:

Python3

# Implementation of matplotlib function
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from matplotlib.ticker import EngFormatter

val = np.random.RandomState(19680801)
xs = np.logspace(1, 9, 100)
ys = (0.8 + 4 * val.uniform(size = 100)) * np.log10(xs)**2

fig, ax0 = plt.subplots()
ax0.set_xscale('log')
formatter0 = EngFormatter(unit ='Hz')
ax0.xaxis.set_major_formatter(formatter0)
ax0.plot(xs, ys)
ax0.set_xlabel('Frequency')

fig.suptitle('matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xscale() \
function Example\n', fontweight ="bold")

plt.show()

Output:

Example 2:

Python3

# Implementation of matplotlib function
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt


fig, ax4 = plt.subplots()

x = 10.0**np.linspace(0.0, 2.0, 15)
y = x**2.0
ax4.set_xscale("log", nonposx ='clip')
ax4.set_yscale("log", nonposy ='clip')

ax4.errorbar(x, y, xerr = 0.1 * x,
             yerr = 2.0 + 1.75 * y, 
             color ="green")

ax4.set_ylim(bottom = 0.1)

fig.suptitle('matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xscale()\
 function Example\n', fontweight ="bold")

plt.show()