Change the width of the Basic Bar Chart
Question: I create a Bar Chart with matplotlib with :

    
    
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt; plt.rcdefaults()
    import numpy as np
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    
    objects = ('ETA_PRG_P2REF_RM', 'ETA_PRG_VDES_RM', 'ETA_PRG_P3REF_RM', 'Python', 'C++', 'Java', 'Perl', 'Scala', 'Lisp')
    y_pos = np.arange(len(objects))
    performance = [220010, 234690, 235100, 21220, 83410, 119770, 210990, 190430, 888994]
    plt.bar(y_pos, performance, align='center', alpha=0.5)
    plt.xticks(y_pos, objects)
    plt.ylabel('Usage')
    plt.title('Programming language usage')
    plt.show() 
    

Look at the attached Image [![enter image description
here](http://i.stack.imgur.com/MAUfd.png)](http://i.stack.imgur.com/MAUfd.png)

But, As you can remark the width of the plot is smal, the name of object are
not clear. Can you suggest me how to resolve this problem?

Thank you


Answer: You can add tick labels with a rotation:

    
    
    pyplot.xticks(y_pos, objects, rotation=70)
    

In addition to an angle in degrees, you can specify a string:

    
    
    pyplot.xticks(y_pos, objects, rotation='vertical')
    

You may also want to specify a horizontal alignment, especially is using an
angle like 40. The default is to use the center, which makes the labels look
weird:

    
    
    pyplot.xticks(y_pos, objects, rotation=40, ha='right')
    

See the
[docs](http://matplotlib.org/api/pyplot_api.html#matplotlib.pyplot.xticks) for
a full list of options.

