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D3.js 4.x Data Visualization

You're reading from   D3.js 4.x Data Visualization Learn to visualize your data with JavaScript

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Product type Paperback
Published in Apr 2017
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781787120358
Length 308 pages
Edition 3rd Edition
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Authors (2):
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Aendrew Rininsland Aendrew Rininsland
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Aendrew Rininsland
Swizec Teller Swizec Teller
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Swizec Teller
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Table of Contents (11) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Getting Started with D3, ES2017, and Node.js FREE CHAPTER 2. A Primer on DOM, SVG, and CSS 3. Shape Primitives of D3 4. Making Data Useful 5. Defining the User Experience - Animation and Interaction 6. Hierarchical Layouts of D3 7. The Other Layouts 8. D3 on the Server with Canvas, Koa 2, and Node.js 9. Having Confidence in Your Visualizations 10. Designing Good Data Visualizations

Using paths

In Chapter 2, A Primer on DOM, SVG, and CSS, we created a few sundry shapes with a maximum of four points. Although those will get you pretty far drawing basic charts, for complex shapes we'll need to draw paths. Path elements define outlines of shapes that can be filled, stroked, and so on. They are generalizations of all other shapes and can be used to draw nearly anything.

Wait: what about polyline and polygon? While those are also multipoint SVG primitives, they're really pretty much identical to path.

Most of the path's magic stems from the d attribute; it uses a mini language (in programming terms, a domain-specific language, or DSL) of three basic commands:

  • M, meaning moveto
  • L, meaning lineto
  • Z, meaning closepath

To create a path, we might write something like the following:

Create a new folder in lib/ called chapter3/ and put an index.js in...

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