No module named 'matplotlib.pyplot'; 'matplotlib' is not a package - python-2.7

Question

Have found a similar issue, however haven't found proper solution.
Here's a code:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.plot([1,2,3],[4,2,5])
plt.show()
Run, got the message:
ImportError: No module named 'matplotlib.pyplot'; 'matplotlib' is not a package
I run Linux Mint 18 with preinstalled python-2.7 and python-3.5 (I use python3), before that I was installing modules with a simple sudo apt-get install method and that worked great.
Before running this the code above, I've installed matplotlib in a usual way sudo apt-get install python-matplotlib. As it haven't worked out, started to look for solution.
Python location
which python3 /usr/bin/python3
Current Matplotlib installed
sudo find /usr | grep matplotlib /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/matplotlib
My tries:
1) I've removed matplotlib with autoremove, and tried to make it sudo apt-get install python3-matplotlib instead. Didn't worked out.
2) Used: pip3 install matplotlib or sudo pip3 install matplotlib. Received errors like:
command python setup.py egg_info failed with error code 1 in /tmp/pip-build- ....
3) Then I found another solution:
sudo apt-get install virtualenv
virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python3 py3env
source py3env/bin/activate
pip install matplotlib
Same outcome.
Haven't tried to use import sys sys.path.append('/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/')(proposed in link above), but as I am not sure what exactly this command does (quite a newbie to python and programming itself) - haven't risked.

Answer 1

If you are using pycharm and have matplotlib.py in your current working directory than you get this error. Just delete or rename the matplotlib.py file and it will work.

Answer 2

don't name any file as matplotlib.py within your working directory

Answer 3

In your working directory, check if there is any file matplotlib.py
Delete that file and import matplotib again. That should work.

Answer 4

simply install:
python -m pip install -U pip
python -m pip install -U matplotlib

Answer 5

I had the same problem reasons in my case were
python 3.8.2 with matplotlib that I downloaded was for 3.7. Make sure they are the same.
python 64 bits version with matplotlib 32bits. Make sure they are the same
Use python -m pip install package_which_you_need to install packages for Windows
Make sure to add to PATH the environment variables I forgot to do in my case
pip version was old use
Use python -m pip install --upgrade pip to upgrade pip to the latest for Windows
I saved the file name as matplotlib.py. Try to avoid that
Finally I typed matplotlib.pyplot as matplotlib.plyplot remember to check for typos first. The error message looks similar even though I corrected all the steps above.
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'matplotlib.pyplot'
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'matplotlib.plyplot'