Question

I have a random vector field, i.e the vectors are not functions of the coordinates, but are some random values. I have the data in a 4 column file where the first two columns specify the x and the y coordinate of the origin of the vector and the next two columns have the x and the y component of the vector at that point. How to make a vector plot using matplotlib for such a data. The quiver probably won’t work because the vector is not a function of the coordinates.

Answer 1

Quiver does exactly what you need. There’s no need for things to be on a regular grid.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x, y, u, v = np.random.random((4,10))
plt.quiver(x, y, u, v)
plt.show()

Or am I just misunderstanding your question?