Data Visualization

D3 – JavaScript library for bespoke data visualization

D3 (or D3.js) is a JavaScript library for visualizing data.

Its low-level approach built on web standards offers unparalleled flexibility in authoring dynamic, data-driven graphics. For more than a decade D3 has powered groundbreaking and award-winning visualizations, become a foundational building block of higher-level chart libraries, and fostered a vibrant community of data practitioners around the world.

D3 is not a charting library in the traditional sense. It has no concept of “charts”. When you visualize data with D3, you compose a variety of primitives.

To make a stacked area chart, you might use

  • a CSV parser to load data,
  • a time scale for horizontal position (x),
  • a linear scale for vertical position (y),
  • an ordinal scale and categorical scheme for color,
  • a stack layout for arranging values,
  • an area shape with a linear curve for generating SVG path data,
  • axes for documenting the position encodings, and
  • selections for creating SVG elements.

Features include:

  • Low-level toolbox.
  • Flexibility – has no overarching “chart” abstraction, even a basic chart may require a few dozen lines of code.
  • Works with the web – doesn’t introduce a new graphical representation; instead, you use D3 directly with web standards such as SVG and Canvas.
  • Bespoke visualization.
  • Dynamic visualization – data join: given a set of data and a set of DOM elements, the data join allows you to apply separate operations for entering, updating, and exiting elements.

Website: d3js.org
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Mike Bostock
License: ISC License

D3 is written in JavaScript. Learn JavaScript with our recommended free books and free tutorials.


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