ListLinePlot with shading areas

Question

I have a time series plot, and would like to shade specific regions in light grey (transparent) like this

I cannot figure out how to add these 'recession shadings' in a ListLinePlot. Thank you!

Answer 1

You can include them as Rectangle objects in the Prolog of the plot:

ts = RandomReal[{-.6, 1.2}, 100];

ListLinePlot[
  ts,
  Prolog -> {GrayLevel[0.85],
    Rectangle[{1000, -100}, {2500, 100}],
    Rectangle[{5000, -100}, {5700, 100}]
  },
  PlotStyle -> Red,
  Frame -> True, Axes -> False,
  FrameTicks -> {{Automatic, None}, {Automatic, None}}
]

Using Prolog ensures that the plot is drawn on top of them, so they do not need to be transparent. Alternatively, if you do want transparency, you can control that by adding an Opacity directive after the color selection in the Prolog.

The top and bottom edges of the rectangles have been arbitrarily set to -100 and +100 in the code above; if that is not enough to make sure that the edges are well outside of the plot's range, they can be adjusted manually.

Answer 2

data = RandomReal[{-6, 12}, 10];

{n, x} = Through[{Min, Max}[data]];

ListLinePlot[data,
 Prolog -> {LightGray, Rectangle[##] & @@@
    {{{2, n}, {4, x}},
     {{5, n}, {8, x}}}},
 Frame -> True, PlotStyle -> Orange]

Or

ListLinePlot[{data,
  {{2, n}, {4, n}}, {{2, x}, {4, x}},
  {{5, n}, {8, n}}, {{5, x}, {8, x}}},
 Frame -> True, PlotStyle -> {Orange, None, None, None, None},
 Filling -> {{2 -> {{3}, LightGray}}, {4 -> {{5}, LightGray}}}]

Answer 3

SeedRandom[77777]
values = Accumulate /@ RandomVariate[NormalDistribution[], {5, 300}];

ListLinePlot

dates = Range@300;
data = Thread[{dates, #}] & /@ values;
recessions = {{20, 35}, {95, 120}, {180, 240}};

Combine two ListLinePlots, one for the original time series and the second for recessions, using Show:

llp = ListLinePlot[ data];
llp2 = ListLinePlot[Thread[{#, PlotRange[llp][[2, 1]]}] & /@ recessions, 
   Filling -> Top, FillingStyle -> Opacity[.25, Gray], PlotStyle -> None, 
   PlotRange -> PlotRange[llp]];
Show[llp, llp2, Frame -> True]

DateListPlot

dates = DateRange[{1990, 1}, DatePlus[{1990, 1}, {299, "Month"}], "Month"];
data = Thread[{dates, #}] & /@ values;
recessions = {{{1995, 1}, {1998, 2}}, {{2001, 2}, {2003, 1}}, {{2009, 5}, {2011, 2}}};

Combine two DateListPlots, one for the original time series and the second for recessions, using Show:

dlp = DateListPlot[data,  Joined -> True];
dlp2 = DateListPlot[Thread[{#, PlotRange[dlp][[2, 1]]}] & /@ recessions, 
 Joined -> True, Filling -> Top, FillingStyle -> Opacity[.25, Gray], 
 PlotStyle -> None, PlotRange -> PlotRange[dlp]];
Show[dlp, dlp2]