Changing matplotlib subplot size/position after axes creation

Question

Is it possible to set the size/position of a matplotlib subplot after the axes are created? I know that I can do:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

ax = plt.subp         


        

Answer 1

You can avoid ax.set_position() by using fig.tight_layout() instead which recalculates the new gridspec:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.gridspec as gridspec

# create the first axes without knowing of further subplot creation
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(range(5), 'o-')

# now update the existing gridspec ...
gs = gridspec.GridSpec(3, 1)
ax.set_subplotspec(gs[0:2])
# ... and recalculate the positions
fig.tight_layout()

# add a new subplot
fig.add_subplot(gs[2])
fig.tight_layout()
plt.show()