TimeSeriesGif

Got a pandas time series dataframe? Want to create gifs out of it? Maybe you're trying to get a better sense of your time series through different slices of time? Cool.

Installation

pip install TimeSeriesGif

Usage

Import the package like such:

from TimeSeriesGif import TimeSeriesGif

Hopefully you are familiar with the way pandas creates plots. TimeSeriesGif is essentially a wrapper for the DataFrame plot method.

TimeSeriesGif.time_series_to_gif(pandas_df, out_file, window=24, step=3, 
					plot_type='line', use_index_as_title=False,
					gif_duration = 0.5, **kwargs):

• pandas_df: your pandas dataframe or series that you want to plot
• window: the number of rows you want in each frame of the gif
• step: the number of rows you want to increment in each frame of the gif
• plot_type: passed as a keyword argument to pandas's "plot" function's "kind" argument. For example: df.plot(kind='line') or .plot(kind='scatter').
• use_index_as_title: use the last index value in the window as the title
• gif_duration: the length of time between frames
• kwargs: Other keyword arguments you may want to pass to the pandas "plot" method.

Example

You like macroeconomics? Trying to make some cool inflation gifs?

Well go ahead and fire up your consumer prices there, buddy.

import pandas_datareader.data as web
from TimeSeriesGif import TimeSeriesGif

df = web.DataReader("CPIAUCSL", "fred", start="1900-01-01", end="2017-07-07")

Transformations? No problem. Get some annual percent changes maybe.

df = df["CPIAUCSL"].pct_change(12).to_frame("inflation")
df = df[df.index >= "1995-01-01"]

Now all you gotta do is:

TimeSeriesGif.time_series_to_gif(df, 'test.gif', 
		window=24, step=3, plot_type='line',  
		gif_duration=1,
		ylim=(0.005, 0.05))

The arguments mean that you are:

• Naming your file 'test.gif' because you aren't a creative person
• Taking a 24 month window
• Incrementing by 3 months at a time
• Making a line plot
• Creating a 1 second lag between each frame
• Bounding the y axis