Plotting a Histogram in Python using Seaborn

By Alokesh Bora

In this tutorial, I will be teaching you how to plot a histogram in Python using the seaborn library.

Before we begin, make sure you have the seaborn library and matplotlib library installed on your system. If not, then go to the following link to know how:-

Line chart plotting using Seaborn in Python

What is a Histogram?

A Histogram is formally defined as a graphical display of data with the help of bars of varying heights. A histogram group numbers into ranges and are very useful in certain use cases. For example, the heights of various people can be easily represented effectively using a histogram.

Importing the required libraries

import seaborn as sns
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

This will import the seaborn library with alias ‘sns’. Similarly, for matplotlib, the alias name here is ‘plt’.

Creating an alias name will make the code look simpler and more readable.

The Dataset

You can use any dataset you want, or you can even input the values yourself. But for this tutorial, I will be using the very popular “iris” dataset. This dataset has information about flowers. Make sure you are connected to the internet while running this code as the dataset is available online.

Program: Plot a Histogram in Python using Seaborn

#Importing the libraries that are necessary

import seaborn as sns
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

#Loading the dataset
dataset = sns.load_dataset("iris")

#Creating the histogram
sns.distplot(dataset['sepal_length'])

#Showing the plot
plt.show()

First, the sns.distplot() function loads the dateset into the variable, ‘dataset’.

Next, the sns.distplot() function creates the histogram.

Finally, the plt.show() function shows the graph

OUTPUT:

You should refer to the following articles to learn more about Seaborn and plotting graphs in Python:-

Plotting Categorical Data with Seaborn in Python

Seaborn module of Python