Swarm plot

seaborn.swarmplot() is used to display individual data points for one or more categorical variables, similar to sns.stripplot().
However, unlike stripplot, it automatically arranges (swarm) the points so that they don’t overlap — creating a cleaner, more readable visualisation.

You can think of it as a “smarter” stripplot that spreads points apart along the categorical axis while keeping their exact numeric values.

Syntax:

sns.swarmplot(    data=None,    x=None,    y=None,    hue=None,    order=None,    hue_order=None,    dodge=False,    orient=None,    color=None,    palette=None,    size=5,    marker='o',    linewidth=0,    edgecolor=None,    alpha=None,    **kwargs)

Parameters:

• data = DataFrame containing the data
• x, y = Categorical and numerical variables
• hue = Adds subgroups with different colours
• order, hue_order = Category/subcategory order
• palette = Colour scheme
• size = Dot size
• alpha = Transparency (0–1)
• marker = Shape of the dots (e.g., 'o', 's', '^')
• dodge = Places hue subgroups side by side
• orient = "v" (vertical) or "h" (horizontal)
• linewidth, edgecolor = Outline style for dots

Basic example

import seaborn as snsimport matplotlib.pyplot as plt​tips = sns.load_dataset("tips")​sns.swarmplot(data=tips, x="day", y="total_bill")plt.show()

Each dot = one observation of total_bill on a specific day. Dots are evenly spaced, so none overlap.

Add hue (subgroups)

import seaborn as snsimport matplotlib.pyplot as plt​tips = sns.load_dataset("tips")​sns.swarmplot(data=tips, x="day", y="total_bill", hue="sex", palette="Set2")plt.show()

• Dots are coloured by the sex column.
• Each day now has two overlapping but neatly separated swarms.

Separate subgroups (dodge)

import seaborn as snsimport matplotlib.pyplot as plt​tips = sns.load_dataset("tips")​sns.swarmplot(data=tips, x="day", y="total_bill", hue="sex", dodge=True, palette="pastel")plt.show()

Dots for different hue categories appear side by side (not overlapping).

Horizontal swarmplot

import seaborn as snsimport matplotlib.pyplot as plt​tips = sns.load_dataset("tips")​sns.swarmplot(data=tips, x="total_bill", y="day", orient="h")plt.show()

Same data — just flipped horizontally. Useful when category names are long or when numeric range fits better on the x-axis.

Customise style

import seaborn as snsimport matplotlib.pyplot as plt​tips = sns.load_dataset("tips")​sns.swarmplot(    data=tips,    x="day",    y="total_bill",    hue="sex",    dodge=True,    size=6,    palette="coolwarm",    marker="D",    alpha=0.7,    linewidth=0.5,    edgecolor="black")plt.show()

• size → dot size
• marker → shape ("o", "s", "D", "^", etc.)
• alpha → transparency
• edgecolor → outline colour