What\'s the Difference Between `cla()`, `clf()`, and `close()` in Matplotlib for Clearing Plots?

Understanding the Functions for Clearing Plots: cla(), clf(), and close()

Matplotlib, a popular data visualization library, provides functions for clearing plots to refresh or reset the drawing area. These functions are:

• cla() - Clears the current axis, removing any plot elements but leaving the figure and other axes intact.
• clf() - Clears the entire current figure, including all axes and their contents, but keeps the figure window open for reuse.
• close() - Closes the active figure window, effectively removing the plot from view.

Matplotlib Organization

Matplotlib follows a hierarchical structure where a figure window contains one or more figures, and each figure may have multiple axes. The functions cla(), clf(), and close() work on different levels of this hierarchy.

pyplot Interface

The pyplot interface, accessible through import matplotlib.pyplot as plt, provides the following functions:

• plt.cla() - Clears the current axis within the active figure.
• plt.clf() - Clears the entire active figure, removing all axes and contents.
• plt.close() - Closes the current figure window. Additionally, it can close a specific window using its number or name (assigned using figure(number_or_name)) or an instance of a figure (obtained using fig = figure()). plt.close('all') closes all figure windows.

Figure Class Methods

The Figure class also offers methods for clearing figures:

• fig.clf() - Clears the specified figure. Equivalent to plt.clf() when the given figure is active.
• fig.clear() - Synonym for fig.clf()

Usage Considerations

The choice of function depends on the desired level of clearing:

• To clear only the active axis, use plt.cla().
• To clear the entire active figure, use plt.clf().
• To close the active figure window, use plt.close().

Note that closing a figure window with plt.close(fig) is the only way to remove the plot from view, while fig.clf() or fig.clear() only clears the contents of the figure.

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