Bug: texttemplate and hovertemplate show inconsistent values when categoryarray is used in Heatmap
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Assessment
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Newbie friendliness
- 38/100
- Issue type
- Bug
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Activity status
- Stale
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- data-visualization
Research direction
Reproduce the issue with the minimal Python example using Plotly 6.3.1, including the reversed yaxis categoryarray. Trace how heatmap cell values, texttemplate, hovertemplate, and automatic text contrast are remapped after category sorting; done means the displayed values and text colors remain aligned with the repositioned cells.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Minimal working example:
import plotly.graph_objects as go
z = [
[1, None, 30, 50, 1],
[20, 1, 60, 80, 30],
[30, 60, 1, -10, 20]
]
x = ['Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday', 'Friday']
y = ['Morning', 'Afternoon', 'Evening']
fig = go.Figure(
data=go.Heatmap(
z=z,
x=x,
y=y,
text=z,
texttemplate='%{x}<br>%{y}<br>%{text}',
hovertemplate='%{x}<br>%{y}<br>%{text}<extra></extra>',
)
)
# Reverse y-axis order
fig.update_layout(yaxis={'categoryarray': y[::-1]})
fig.show()
Expected behavior:
- When the
yaxis.categoryarrayis reversed, both the heatmap cells and the text (%{text}) / hover labels should display the correctly corresponding values fromz.
Actual behavior:
-
The axis ordering (
x,y) updates correctly. -
The visual placement of heatmap cells updates correctly.
-
However,
%{text}inhovertemplatestill correspond to the original unsorted order ofz. -
This leads to mismatched hover and text values after sorting by category.
Example:
After reversing the y axis, the heatmap looks right, but hovering over a cell labeled "Morning / Monday" still shows the value corresponding to "Evening / Monday" from the original order.
Additional note (text color rendering issue)
I also noticed that the text color changes incorrectly after sorting:
In the unsorted heatmap, cells like “Thursday / Evening” show white text on a dark blue background, which is legible and consistent.
After applying the categoryarray sort, the same cell (now visually repositioned) starts showing almost black text on the same dark background, making it nearly invisible.
This suggests that the automatic contrast adjustment for text color (based on cell background) may not update properly after the category sorting.
Version info
plotly.__version__
# 6.3.1
- Dominant language
- Python
- Stars
- 18.8k
- Forks
- 2.8k
- Avg merge
- 13h 41m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 21
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