Saving a plot in python creates only an empty pdf document -

i using example code exists @ official matplotlib page http://matplotlib.org/examples/api/barchart_demo.html

#!/usr/bin/env python # bar plot errorbars import numpy np import matplotlib.pyplot plt  n = 5 menmeans = (20, 35, 30, 35, 27) menstd =   (2, 3, 4, 1, 2)  ind = np.arange(n)  # x locations groups width = 0.35       # width of bars  fig, ax = plt.subplots() rects1 = ax.bar(ind, menmeans, width, color='r', yerr=menstd)  womenmeans = (25, 32, 34, 20, 25) womenstd =   (3, 5, 2, 3, 3) rects2 = ax.bar(ind+width, womenmeans, width, color='y', yerr=womenstd)  # add ax.set_ylabel('scores') ax.set_title('scores group , gender') ax.set_xticks(ind+width) ax.set_xticklabels( ('g1', 'g2', 'g3', 'g4', 'g5') )  ax.legend( (rects1[0], rects2[0]), ('men', 'women') )  def autolabel(rects):     # attach text labels     rect in rects:         height = rect.get_height()         ax.text(rect.get_x()+rect.get_width()/2., 1.05*height, '%d'%int(height),                 ha='center', va='bottom')  autolabel(rects1) autolabel(rects2)  plt.show() 

this plot, shown absolutely correctly. however, if want save it, using following command @ bottom of code, not save plot.

plt.savefig("result.pdf") 

is make wrong?

move plt.savefig("result.pdf") line before plt.show() should save plot correctly pdf file.

you might using interactive backend. after plt.show(), window containing plot pops up. if close window, plot gone (similar plt.close() call). therefore, plt.savefig() has nothing save if after closing plot window.