How to change the date format in the Python pandas bar plot?

To change the date format in a Python pandas bar plot, you can use the strftime function from the datetime module to format the dates according to your desired format. Here’s an example:

import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from datetime import datetime

# Sample data
data = {'Date': ['2023-01-01', '2023-02-01', '2023-03-01', '2023-04-01'],
        'Value': [10, 15, 8, 12]}

df = pd.DataFrame(data)

# Convert 'Date' column to datetime
df['Date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['Date'])

# Set the desired date format
date_format = "%b %d, %Y"

# Plot the bar chart
plt.bar(df['Date'].dt.strftime(date_format), df['Value'])
plt.xlabel('Date')
plt.ylabel('Value')
plt.title('Bar Plot with Custom Date Format')
plt.xticks(rotation=45)  # Rotate x-axis labels if needed
plt.show()

In this example, we have a DataFrame df with a ‘Date’ column and a ‘Value’ column. We first convert the ‘Date’ column to a datetime format using pd.to_datetime().

Then, we set the desired date format using the date_format variable. The %b represents the abbreviated month name, %d represents the day of the month with a leading zero, and %Y represents the four-digit year.

When plotting the bar chart, we use df['Date'].dt.strftime(date_format) to format the dates in the ‘Date’ column according to the specified format. This returns a new Series with formatted date strings that can be used as x-axis labels for the bar chart.

You can modify the date_format variable to match your desired format. You can refer to the Python documentation on strftime for more formatting options: https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes