Understanding Symmetrical Log Scale in Matplotlib

The Symmetrical Log (SymLog) scale is a type of axis scale provided by Matplotlib, which allows for a linear scale near zero and logarithmic scaling elsewhere. This is particularly useful for visualizing data that spans several orders of magnitude while retaining the fine-grained structure around zero.

How to Use SymLog

In Matplotlib, you can set the y-axis (or x-axis) to a symlog scale using the set_yscale() method and providing additional parameters.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

# Generate example data
x = np.linspace(-10, 10, 400)
y = x**3 - 1e-6 * x**2

# Create a plot
plt.figure()
plt.plot(x, y)

# Set y-axis to 'symlog' scale
plt.yscale('symlog', linthresh=1e-7, linscale=1)

# Add grid, labels, and title
plt.grid(True)
plt.xlabel('X-axis')
plt.ylabel('Y-axis (symlog scale)')
plt.title('Symmetrical Log Scale Example')

# Show the plot
plt.show()

The linthresh parameter sets the range around zero where the scale is linear, while linscale controls the transition between the linear and log regions.

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