How to Plot a Mat File in Python

In this tutorial, we will learn how to plot a MATLAB file (.mat) in Python. MATLAB is a high-level technical computing language whereas Python is a general-purpose programming language. In several instances, those accustomed to MATLAB may wish to bring their data (saved in .mat files) into Python for further manipulation.

For that, we will use Python’s Scipy library to load the .mat file, and Matplotlib to plot the data.

Step 1: Installing necessary Python libraries

The first step to import your .mat file into Python is by installing the necessary libraries such as Scipy and Matplotlib. To install these libraries, open your terminal and type the following commands:

1 2	pip install scipy pip install matplotlib

Step 2: Importing the libraries

Once you have installed Scipy and Matplotlib, you need to import them into your Python script using the import command.

1 2	import scipy.io import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

Step 3: Loading the .mat file

In this step, we will load the .mat file using the scipy.io.loadmat() function. Just replace ‘myfile.mat’ with your .mat file name.

1	mat = scipy.io.loadmat('myfile.mat')

Step 4: Exploring the .mat file content

Now, you can explore your .mat file content by simply printing the variable with the print() function.

1	print(mat)

Step 5: Plotting the data

Once you have explored your .mat file content, you can plot the data using pyplot from the matplotlib library. Below is the code snippet to plot the data.

data = mat['YourVariable'] # Replace 'YourVariable' with variable inside your mat file

plt.plot(data)

plt.show()

Below is the full code

import scipy.io

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# Load the .mat file

mat = scipy.io.loadmat('myfile.mat')

# Print the content of the .mat file

print(mat)

#Plot the data

data = mat['YourVariable']