title: How to plot stacked event duration (Gantt Charts)
body: <p>I have a Pandas DataFrame containing the date that a stream gage started measuring flow and the date that the station was decommissioned.  I want to generate a plot showing these dates graphically. Here is a sample of my DataFrame:</p>
  <pre class="lang-py prettyprint-override"><code>import pandas as pd
  
  data = {'index': [40623, 40637, 40666, 40697, 40728, 40735, 40742, 40773, 40796, 40819, 40823, 40845, 40867, 40887, 40945, 40964, 40990, 41040, 41091, 41100],
          'StationId': ['UTAHDWQ-5932100', 'UTAHDWQ-5932230', 'UTAHDWQ-5932240', 'UTAHDWQ-5932250', 'UTAHDWQ-5932253', 'UTAHDWQ-5932254', 'UTAHDWQ-5932280', 'UTAHDWQ-5932290', 'UTAHDWQ-5932750', 'UTAHDWQ-5983753', 'UTAHDWQ-5983754', 'UTAHDWQ-5983755', 'UTAHDWQ-5983756', 'UTAHDWQ-5983757', 'UTAHDWQ-5983759', 'UTAHDWQ-5983760', 'UTAHDWQ-5983775', 'UTAHDWQ-5989066', 'UTAHDWQ-5996780', 'UTAHDWQ-5996800'],
          'amin': ['1994-07-19 13:15:00', '2006-03-16 13:55:00', '1980-10-31 16:00:00', '1981-06-11 17:45:00', '2006-06-28 13:15:00', '2006-06-28 13:55:00', '1981-06-11 15:30:00', '1992-06-10 15:45:00', '2005-10-03 16:30:00', '2006-04-25 09:56:00', '2006-04-25 11:05:00', '2006-04-25 13:50:00', '2006-04-25 14:20:00', '2006-04-25 12:45:00', '2008-04-08 13:03:00', '2008-04-08 13:15:00', '2008-04-15 12:47:00', '2005-10-04 10:15:00', '1995-03-09 13:59:00', '1995-03-09 15:13:00'],
          'amax': ['1998-06-30 14:51:00', '2007-01-24 12:55:00', '2007-07-31 11:35:00', '1990-08-01 08:30:00', '2007-01-24 13:35:00', '2007-01-24 14:05:00', '2006-08-22 16:00:00', '1998-06-30 11:33:00', '2005-10-22 15:00:00', '2006-04-25 10:00:00', '2008-04-08 12:16:00', '2008-04-08 09:10:00', '2008-04-08 09:30:00', '2008-04-08 11:27:00', '2008-04-08 13:05:00', '2008-04-08 13:23:00', '2009-04-07 13:15:00', '2005-10-05 11:40:00', '1996-03-14 10:40:00', '1996-03-14 11:05:00']}
  df = pd.DataFrame(data)
  df.set_index('index', inplace=True)
  
  # display(df.head())
  
               StationId                 amin                 amax
  index                                                           
  40623  UTAHDWQ-5932100  1994-07-19 13:15:00  1998-06-30 14:51:00
  40637  UTAHDWQ-5932230  2006-03-16 13:55:00  2007-01-24 12:55:00
  40666  UTAHDWQ-5932240  1980-10-31 16:00:00  2007-07-31 11:35:00
  40697  UTAHDWQ-5932250  1981-06-11 17:45:00  1990-08-01 08:30:00
  40728  UTAHDWQ-5932253  2006-06-28 13:15:00  2007-01-24 13:35:00
  </code></pre>
  <p>I want to create a plot similar to this (please note that I did not make this plot using the above data):
  <a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/NWNNL.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/NWNNL.jpg" alt="It would be nice if the y-axis had the station names." /></a></p>
  <p>The plot does not have to have the text shown along each line, just the y-axis with station names.</p>
  <p>While this may seem like a niche application of pandas, I know several scientists that would benefit from this plotting ability.</p>
  <p>The closest answer I could find is here:</p>
  <ul>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16051363/how-to-plot-stacked-proportional-graph">How to plot stacked proportional graph?</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17812978/how-to-plot-two-columns-of-a-pandas-data-frame-using-points">How to plot two columns of a pandas data frame using points</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25041905/matplotlib-timelines">Matplotlib timelines</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18066781/how-to-create-a-gantt-plot">How to create a Gantt plot</a></li>
  </ul>
  <p>The last answer is closest to suiting my needs.</p>
  <p>While I would prefer a way to do it through the Pandas wrapper, I would be open and grateful to a straight matplotlib solution.</p>