Multi-Line Chart (2)

This example demonstrates a chart with multiple lines using date/time x coordinates for the data points (as opposed to using x-axis labels). It also demonstrates various methods to control the chart appearance.

In ChartDirector, x coordinates for the data points are optional. If no x coordinates are provided for the data points, the x coordinates will be assumed to be the array indexes (0, 1, 2, 3 ...), and the data points would be evenly spaced in the x direction. Axis labels specified using Axis.setLabels or Axis.setLabels2 are also positioned using the array indexes as the x coordinates, so the labels will match with the data points.

In some applications, it may be necessary or more convenient to provide x coordinates for the data points. For example, if the data points are unevenly spaced, or if there are multiple data series with different data point spacing in the x direction, x coordinates are needed. In this case, Layer.setXData or Layer.setXData2 can be used to provide the x coordinates. By default, ChartDirector will then automatically determine the x-axis scale and labels, just like how the y-axis is handled. The axis scale and labels can also be specified by using various Axis methods, such as Axis.setLinearScale, Axis.setLogScale and Axis.setDateScale (please refer to Axis for the full list).

Axis.setLabels or Axis.setLabels2 should not be used if x coordinates are provided, as they use array indexes as the x coordinates, which is unlikely to be consistent with the provided x coordinates.

In this example, x coordinates are used to demonstrate the automatic x-axis scale and labels.

perldemo\multiline2.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl

# The ChartDirector for Perl module is assumed to be in "../lib"
use File::Basename;
use lib (dirname($0)."/../lib") =~ /(.*)/;

use perlchartdir;

# In this example, we simply use random data for the 3 data series.
my $r = new RanSeries(129);
my $data0 = $r->getSeries(100, 100, -15, 15);
my $data1 = $r->getSeries(100, 160, -15, 15);
my $data2 = $r->getSeries(100, 220, -15, 15);
my $timeStamps = $r->getDateSeries(100, perlchartdir::chartTime(2014, 1, 1), 86400);

# Create a XYChart object of size 600 x 400 pixels
my $c = new XYChart(600, 400);

# Add a title box using grey (0x555555) 20pt Arial font
$c->addTitle("    Multi-Line Chart Demonstration", "Arial", 20, 0x555555);

# Set the plotarea at (70, 70) and of size 500 x 300 pixels, with transparent background and border
# and light grey (0xcccccc) horizontal grid lines
$c->setPlotArea(70, 70, 500, 300, $perlchartdir::Transparent, -1, $perlchartdir::Transparent,
    0xcccccc);

# Add a legend box with horizontal layout above the plot area at (70, 35). Use 12pt Arial font,
# transparent background and border, and line style legend icon.
my $b = $c->addLegend(70, 35, 0, "Arial", 12);
$b->setBackground($perlchartdir::Transparent, $perlchartdir::Transparent);
$b->setLineStyleKey();

# Set axis label font to 12pt Arial
$c->xAxis()->setLabelStyle("Arial", 12);
$c->yAxis()->setLabelStyle("Arial", 12);

# Set the x and y axis stems to transparent, and the x-axis tick color to grey (0xaaaaaa)
$c->xAxis()->setColors($perlchartdir::Transparent, $perlchartdir::TextColor,
    $perlchartdir::TextColor, 0xaaaaaa);
$c->yAxis()->setColors($perlchartdir::Transparent);

# Set the major/minor tick lengths for the x-axis to 10 and 0.
$c->xAxis()->setTickLength(10, 0);

# For the automatic axis labels, set the minimum spacing to 80/40 pixels for the x/y axis.
$c->xAxis()->setTickDensity(80);
$c->yAxis()->setTickDensity(40);

# Add a title to the y axis using dark grey (0x555555) 14pt Arial font
$c->yAxis()->setTitle("Y-Axis Title Placeholder", "Arial", 14, 0x555555);

# Add a line layer to the chart with 3-pixel line width
my $layer = $c->addLineLayer2();
$layer->setLineWidth(3);

# Add 3 data series to the line layer
$layer->addDataSet($data0, 0x5588cc, "Alpha");
$layer->addDataSet($data1, 0xee9944, "Beta");
$layer->addDataSet($data2, 0x99bb55, "Gamma");

# The x-coordinates for the line layer
$layer->setXData($timeStamps);

# Output the chart
$c->makeChart("multiline2.png");