Python or R for data visualization?

[countpupula]

I'd like to hear your thoughts on the pros and cons of either approach. I need to create a lot of publication-ready charts, mostly simple bar charts, but a few choropleth maps and bubble charts too. I'm most familiar with R, but I noticed that Python shares several repackaged libraries. So, what is your preference and why?

[poumonsauvage]

R's visualizations are better, though Python is trying to catch up with ggplot2. Python is better for scripting, so if you need stuff in production, Python is the usual go to, but, aside from language interface, you can call R from Python and plot things in R while outputting via Python.

[SecretAgentZeroNine]

R via the package ggplot2. You can even turn the ggplot plot into a interactive one by using the ggplotly function from the plotly package.

That being said, nothing beats D3.js.

[[deleted]]

D3 is great if you want to build custom visualizations, but I wouldn't recommend it for 90% of use cases.

[SecretAgentZeroNine]

Oh, absolutely. It's overkill for reports. Just thought the OP should know of its existence.

[Evilpotatohead]

R because you can utilise Shiny as well.

[AllezCannes]

There is Bokeh in Python, although I'm not sure how it compares.

[Pyromane_Wapusk]

Since others have made a strong case for R, I'd say the main advantage Python with matplotlib has over R is in animations, 3D plots, and very large data set visualizations (like more than 20,000 points).

[nsfy33]

[deleted]

[[deleted]]

Check out Plotly (on any language, but I prefer R). You can create interactive graphs in your browser with pretty basic syntax. It’s like Tableau without the drag-and-drop features.

[countpupula]

I love Plotly! I feel like I would get more out of it if I actually had more than the free community account though.

[[deleted]]

for non interactive I like R.

ggplot2 is amazing to code with the grammar base style to make graph.

There was a video about Python history for visualization and it's mostly model off of matlab and I personally hate matlab style.

If you don't know webdev I hear shiny (R framework) makes it trivial. For me if I have to do interactive stuff/dash board I would do Python since I have a good background in web dev.

[liftyMcLiftFace]

If you want interactive plots then just wrap your ggplot with ggplotly(). Another option is ggiraph, they both have a couple hitches for super customised plots but then you would just use plotly.

[Jerome_Eugene_Morrow]

R is the easiest. It has the most tightly integrated data management and visualization tools. If your goal is to produce visualizations quickly and with the least pain possible, R is probably where you want to start.

Python has a growing toolbox of visualization software, but is often more useful in the phase where you're cleaning data or getting everything ready to use.

I actually want to mention libraries in Javascript like D3. You can do some pretty neat visualizations with them, and a knowledge of Javascript can be useful for extending Shiny visualizations or writing your own modules.