[Feature Request] Add concise xlabel=, ylabel=, option in plot() method

[xgdgsc]

The current plot() method for Dataframe cannot set the x/y label in it. Result is more lines of code for just doing this.

As someone commented in that post:

Is there a particular reason why x and y labels can't be added as arguments to pd.plot()? Given the additional concision of pd.plot() over plt.plot() it seems it would make sense to make it even more succinct instead of having to call ax.set_ylabel()

[shoyer]

I just added my perspective on the right way to do this to the stackoverflow post. I don't see a strong need for clutter the APi with this, although to be fair, the plotting API is already pretty cluttered.

[jreback]

@xgdgsc we would accept a pull-request to implement this. Its pretty straightforward. As @shoyer says we are trying to not extend the plotting API anymore, but this does seems useful.

[xgdgsc]

@jreback OK. I would like to try to implement this.

[ispmarin]

👍

[roryhr]

Scientists are taught always include a title and labelled axes on plots. Ideally, the Pandas default plot command would intelligently title and label plots. This is an important issue because adding labels to plots is still too difficult.

[TomAugspurger]

Pandas grabs index name automatically for the x axis, and adds legends automatically. The issue isn't the defaults, it's the lack of an option for overriding those defaults. I think we're open to adding these arguments if someone has the time to submit a pull request.