DEPR: sort_columns in plot (#47563)

doc/source/whatsnew/v1.5.0.rst

@@ -845,6 +845,7 @@ Other Deprecations
 - Deprecated unused arguments ``encoding`` and ``verbose`` in :meth:`Series.to_excel` and :meth:`DataFrame.to_excel` (:issue:`47912`)
 - Deprecated producing a single element when iterating over a :class:`DataFrameGroupBy` or a :class:`SeriesGroupBy` that has been grouped by a list of length 1; A tuple of length one will be returned instead (:issue:`42795`)
 - Fixed up warning message of deprecation of :meth:`MultiIndex.lesort_depth` as public method, as the message previously referred to :meth:`MultiIndex.is_lexsorted` instead (:issue:`38701`)
+- Deprecated the ``sort_columns`` argument in :meth:`DataFrame.plot` and :meth:`Series.plot` (:issue:`47563`).
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 .. _whatsnew_150.performance:

pandas/plotting/_core.py

@@ -1,11 +1,14 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import importlib
+import inspect
+import itertools
 import types
 from typing import (
     TYPE_CHECKING,
     Sequence,
 )
+import warnings
 
 from pandas._config import get_option
 
@@ -14,6 +17,7 @@
     Appender,
     Substitution,
 )
+from pandas.util._exceptions import find_stack_level
 
 from pandas.core.dtypes.common import (
     is_integer,
@@ -755,6 +759,11 @@ class PlotAccessor(PandasObject):
         If True, create stacked plot.
     sort_columns : bool, default False
         Sort column names to determine plot ordering.
+
+        .. deprecated:: 1.5.0
+            The `sort_columns` arguments is deprecated and will be removed in a
+            future version.
+
     secondary_y : bool or sequence, default False
         Whether to plot on the secondary y-axis if a list/tuple, which
         columns to plot on secondary y-axis.
@@ -875,6 +884,14 @@ def _get_call_args(backend_name, data, args, kwargs):
                 "expected Series or DataFrame"
             )
 
+        if "sort_columns" in itertools.chain(args, kwargs.keys()):
+            warnings.warn(
+                "`sort_columns` is deprecated and will be removed in a future "
+                "version.",
+                FutureWarning,
+                stacklevel=find_stack_level(inspect.currentframe()),
+            )
+
         if args and isinstance(data, ABCSeries):
             positional_args = str(args)[1:-1]
             keyword_args = ", ".join(

pandas/tests/plotting/frame/test_frame.py

@@ -2215,6 +2215,19 @@ def test_secondary_y(self, secondary_y):
                 assert ax.get_ylim() == (0, 100)
                 assert ax.get_yticks()[0] == 99
 
+    def test_sort_columns_deprecated(self):
+        # GH 47563
+        df = DataFrame({"a": [1, 2], "b": [3, 4]})
+
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning):
+            df.plot.box("a", sort_columns=True)
+
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning):
+            df.plot.box(sort_columns=False)
+
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(False):
+            df.plot.box("a")
+
 
 def _generate_4_axes_via_gridspec():
     import matplotlib as mpl