Question

In R, there is a function locator which is like Matlab’s ginput where you can click on the figure with a mouse and select any x,y coordinate. In addition, there is a function called identify(x,y) where if you give it a set of points x,y that you have plotted and then click on the figure, it will return the index of the x,y point which lies nearest (within an adjustable tolerance) to the location you have selected (or multiple indices, if multiple points are selected). Is there such a functionality in Matplotlib?

Answer 1

You may want to use a pick event :

fig = figure()
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(111)
ax1.set_title('custom picker for line data')
line, = ax1.plot(rand(100), rand(100), 'o', picker=line_picker)
fig.canvas.mpl_connect('pick_event', onpick2)

Tolerance set by picker parameter there:

line, = ax1.plot(rand(100), 'o', picker=5)  # 5 points tolerance