How to remove lines in a Matplotlib plot

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How can I remove a line (or lines) of a matplotlib axes in such a way as it actually gets garbage collected and releases the memory back? The below code appears to delete the line, but never releases the memory (even with explicit calls to gc.collect())

from matplotlib import pyplot
import numpy
a = numpy.arange(int(1e7))
# large so you can easily see the memory footprint on the system monitor.
fig = pyplot.Figure()
ax  = pyplot.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
lines = ax.plot(a) # this uses up an additional 230 Mb of memory.
# can I get the memory back?
l = lines[0]
l.remove()
del l
del lines
# not releasing memory
ax.cla() # this does release the memory, but also wipes out all other lines.

So is there a way to just delete one line from an axes and get the memory back? This potential solution also does not work.

python matplotlib plot

Edit Report

This is a very long explanation that I typed up for a coworker of mine. I think it would be helpful here as well. Be patient, though. I get to the real issue that you are having toward the end. Just as a teaser, it's an issue of having extra references to your Line2D objects hanging around.

WARNING: One other note before we dive in. If you are using IPython to test this out, IPython keeps references of its own and not all of them are weakrefs. So, testing garbage collection in IPython does not work. It just confuses matters.

Okay, here we go. Each matplotlib object (Figure, Axes, etc) provides access to its child artists via various attributes. The following example is getting quite long, but should be illuminating.

We start out by creating a Figure object, then add an Axes object to that figure. Note that ax and fig.axes[0] are the same object (same id()).

>>> #Create a figure
>>> fig = plt.figure()
>>> fig.axes
[]

>>> #Add an axes object
>>> ax = fig.add_subplot(1,1,1)

>>> #The object in ax is the same as the object in fig.axes[0], which is 
>>> #   a list of axes objects attached to fig 
>>> print ax
Axes(0.125,0.1;0.775x0.8)
>>> print fig.axes[0]
Axes(0.125,0.1;0.775x0.8)  #Same as "print ax"
>>> id(ax), id(fig.axes[0])
(212603664, 212603664) #Same ids => same objects

This also extends to lines in an axes object:

>>> #Add a line to ax
>>> lines = ax.plot(np.arange(1000))

>>> #Lines and ax.lines contain the same line2D instances 
>>> print lines
[<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0xce84bd0>]
>>> print ax.lines
[<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0xce84bd0>]

>>> print lines[0]
Line2D(_l


                        
                        
                            answered 2012-11-27T00:24:45.663

How to remove lines in a Matplotlib plot

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