This works and shows a plot in vscode:

#%% cell with plot
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
y = [3.2, 3.9, 3.7, 3.5, 3.02199]
x = [0.15, 0.3, 0.45, 0.6, 0.75]
n = [155, "outliner", 293, 230, 670]fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.scatter(x, y)
plt.xlabel('the x axis')
plt.ylabel('the y axis') 
for i, txt in enumerate(n):ax.annotate(txt, (x[i], y[i]))plt.show()

Here is the image:

However, this does not work:

#%% call plot separately
plt.show()

And neither does this:

#%%  try this too
plt

So given that the plot exists (because it can be seen) in the first cell, why can it not be called or seen in the other cells or how can one do this ?

Try:

1. call plt.ion() instead of plt.show()

2. add %matplotlib inline before plt.show()

3. uninstall matplotlib and reinstall using apt-get instead of pip

4. or install this module apt-get install python3-tk in addition