Bug summary

When using 0 or 1 in place of False or True in sharex or sharex arguments of pyplot.subplots an error is raised.

Code for reproduction

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig, ax = plt.subplots(ncols=2,sharey=1)

Actual outcome

We get the following error :

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/***/shareyArg.py", line 3, in <module>
    fig, ax = plt.subplots(ncols=2,sharey=1)
  File "/***/matplotlib/lib/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 1448, in subplots
    axs = fig.subplots(nrows=nrows, ncols=ncols, sharex=sharex, sharey=sharey,
  File "/***/matplotlib/lib/matplotlib/figure.py", line 889, in subplots
    axs = gs.subplots(sharex=sharex, sharey=sharey, squeeze=squeeze,
  File "/***/matplotlib/lib/matplotlib/gridspec.py", line 293, in subplots
    _api.check_in_list(["all", "row", "col", "none"],
  File "/***/matplotlib/lib/matplotlib/_api/__init__.py", line 131, in check_in_list
    raise ValueError(msg)
ValueError: 1 is not a valid value for sharey; supported values are 'all', 'row', 'col', 'none'

Note that using sharex instead of sharey produces the same error (albeit with the following warning :

UserWarning: sharex argument to subplots() was an integer.  Did you intend to use subplot() (without 's')?

but this is expected and not part of the present issue)

Expected outcome

I expected values 1 and 0 to be understood as bool.

Additional information

Suggested fix :

diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/gridspec.py b/lib/matplotlib/gridspec.py
index 06dd3f19f6..32ee7c306e 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/gridspec.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/gridspec.py
@@ -276,9 +276,9 @@ class GridSpecBase:
             raise ValueError("GridSpec.subplots() only works for GridSpecs "
                              "created with a parent figure")
 
-        if isinstance(sharex, bool):
+        if isinstance(sharex, bool) or sharex == 1 or sharex == 0:
             sharex = "all" if sharex else "none"
-        if isinstance(sharey, bool):
+        if isinstance(sharey, bool) or sharey == 1 or sharey == 0:
             sharey = "all" if sharey else "none"
         # This check was added because it is very easy to type
         # `subplots(1, 2, 1)` when `subplot(1, 2, 1)` was intended.

Maybe not accepting 1 or 0 was done on purpose, but I did not find it very clear from the error message as True and False are accepted but not listed.

I am happy to chat about an other fix, if this one doesn't do the trick. I can also create a PR in case you think this fix is good enough !

Operating system

Linux 5.10.0-19-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.149-2

Matplotlib Version

3.7.0.dev600+g0b6d3703ff

Matplotlib Backend

TkAgg

Python version

3.10.0

Jupyter version

Not applicable

Installation

git checkout