How should I pass a matplotlib object through a function; as Axis, Axes or Figure?

Question

Sorry in advance if this is a little long winded but if I cut it down too much the problem is lost. I am trying to make a module on top of pandas and matplotlib which will give

Answer 1

You should pass around Axes objects and break your functions up to operate on a single axes at a time. You are close, but just change

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def _profile(ax, x, y):
    ln, = ax.plot(x, y)
    # return the Artist created
    return ln


def profile_matrix(n, m):
    fig, ax_array = plt.subplots(n, m, sharex=True, sharey=True)
    for ax in np.ravel(ax_array):
        _profile(ax, np.arange(50), np.random.rand(50))

profile_matrix(3, 3)