Matplotlib plot zooming with scroll wheel

Thanks guys, the examples were very helpful. I had to make a few changes to work with a scatter plot and I added panning with a left button drag. Hopefully someone will find this useful.

from matplotlib.pyplot import figure, show
import numpy

class ZoomPan:
    def __init__(self):
        self.press = None
        self.cur_xlim = None
        self.cur_ylim = None
        self.x0 = None
        self.y0 = None
        self.x1 = None
        self.y1 = None
        self.xpress = None
        self.ypress = None


    def zoom_factory(self, ax, base_scale = 2.):
        def zoom(event):
            cur_xlim = ax.get_xlim()
            cur_ylim = ax.get_ylim()

            xdata = event.xdata # get event x location
            ydata = event.ydata # get event y location

            if event.button == 'down':
                # deal with zoom in
                scale_factor = 1 / base_scale
            elif event.button == 'up':
                # deal with zoom out
                scale_factor = base_scale
            else:
                # deal with something that should never happen
                scale_factor = 1
                print event.button

            new_width = (cur_xlim[1] - cur_xlim[0]) * scale_factor
            new_height = (cur_ylim[1] - cur_ylim[0]) * scale_factor

            relx = (cur_xlim[1] - xdata)/(cur_xlim[1] - cur_xlim[0])
            rely = (cur_ylim[1] - ydata)/(cur_ylim[1] - cur_ylim[0])

            ax.set_xlim([xdata - new_width * (1-relx), xdata + new_width * (relx)])
            ax.set_ylim([ydata - new_height * (1-rely), ydata + new_height * (rely)])
            ax.figure.canvas.draw()

        fig = ax.get_figure() # get the figure of interest
        fig.canvas.mpl_connect('scroll_event', zoom)

        return zoom

    def pan_factory(self, ax):
        def onPress(event):
            if event.inaxes != ax: return
            self.cur_xlim = ax.get_xlim()
            self.cur_ylim = ax.get_ylim()
            self.press = self.x0, self.y0, event.xdata, event.ydata
            self.x0, self.y0, self.xpress, self.ypress = self.press

        def onRelease(event):
            self.press = None
            ax.figure.canvas.draw()

        def onMotion(event):
            if self.press is None: return
            if event.inaxes != ax: return
            dx = event.xdata - self.xpress
            dy = event.ydata - self.ypress
            self.cur_xlim -= dx
            self.cur_ylim -= dy
            ax.set_xlim(self.cur_xlim)
            ax.set_ylim(self.cur_ylim)

            ax.figure.canvas.draw()

        fig = ax.get_figure() # get the figure of interest

        # attach the call back
        fig.canvas.mpl_connect('button_press_event',onPress)
        fig.canvas.mpl_connect('button_release_event',onRelease)
        fig.canvas.mpl_connect('motion_notify_event',onMotion)

        #return the function
        return onMotion


fig = figure()

ax = fig.add_subplot(111, xlim=(0,1), ylim=(0,1), autoscale_on=False)

ax.set_title('Click to zoom')
x,y,s,c = numpy.random.rand(4,200)
s *= 200

ax.scatter(x,y,s,c)
scale = 1.1
zp = ZoomPan()
figZoom = zp.zoom_factory(ax, base_scale = scale)
figPan = zp.pan_factory(ax)
show()

This should work. It re-centers the graph on the location of the pointer when you scroll.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt


def zoom_factory(ax,base_scale = 2.):
    def zoom_fun(event):
        # get the current x and y limits
        cur_xlim = ax.get_xlim()
        cur_ylim = ax.get_ylim()
        cur_xrange = (cur_xlim[1] - cur_xlim[0])*.5
        cur_yrange = (cur_ylim[1] - cur_ylim[0])*.5
        xdata = event.xdata # get event x location
        ydata = event.ydata # get event y location
        if event.button == 'up':
            # deal with zoom in
            scale_factor = 1/base_scale
        elif event.button == 'down':
            # deal with zoom out
            scale_factor = base_scale
        else:
            # deal with something that should never happen
            scale_factor = 1
            print event.button
        # set new limits
        ax.set_xlim([xdata - cur_xrange*scale_factor,
                     xdata + cur_xrange*scale_factor])
        ax.set_ylim([ydata - cur_yrange*scale_factor,
                     ydata + cur_yrange*scale_factor])
        plt.draw() # force re-draw

    fig = ax.get_figure() # get the figure of interest
    # attach the call back
    fig.canvas.mpl_connect('scroll_event',zoom_fun)

    #return the function
    return zoom_fun

Assuming you have an axis object ax

 ax.plot(range(10))
 scale = 1.5
 f = zoom_factory(ax,base_scale = scale)

The optional argument base_scale allows you to set the scale factor to be what ever you want.

make sure you keep a copy of f around. The call back uses a weak-ref so if you do not keep a copy of f it might be garbage collected.

After writing this answer I decided this actually quite useful and put it in a gist