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the pie chart example on pandas plotting tutorial http://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/version/0.15.0/visualization.html generates the following figure:

with this code:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.style.use('ggplot')
import numpy as np
np.random.seed(123456)


import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame(3 * np.random.rand(4, 2), index=['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'], columns=['x', 'y'])

f, axes = plt.subplots(1,2, figsize=(10,5))
for ax, col in zip(axes, df.columns):
    df[col].plot(kind='pie', autopct='%.2f', labels=df.index,  ax=ax, title=col, fontsize=10)
    ax.legend(loc=3)

plt.show()

I want to remove the text label (a,b,c,d) from both subplots, because for my application those label are long, so I only want to show them in legend.

After read this: How to add a legend to matplotlib pie chart?, I figure out an way with matplotlib.pyplot.pie but the figure is not as fancy even if i am still using ggplot.

f, axes = plt.subplots(1,2, figsize=(10,5))
for ax, col in zip(axes, df.columns):
    patches, text, _ = ax.pie(df[col].values, autopct='%.2f')
    ax.legend(patches, labels=df.index, loc='best')

My question is, is there a way that can combine the things I want from both side? to be clear, I want the fanciness from pandas, but remove the text from the wedges.

Thank you

Answers

You can turn off the labels in the chart, and then define them within the call to legend:

df[col].plot(kind='pie', autopct='%.2f', labels=['','','',''],  ax=ax, title=col, fontsize=10)
ax.legend(loc=3, labels=df.index)

or

... labels=None ...