I encountered some issues while working with a Histogram chart using d3, as demonstrated in this example. After plugging in my data, I noticed strange side effects such as retained information from previous datasets on the x-axis scale even after refreshing to a new dataset. I attempted different solutions like deleting and appending a new x-axis, but nothing seemed to work.
The root cause of this problem was that my datasets had varying x-axis ranges and scales. The only effective solution I found was to remove the entire svg
element and then re-append everything afresh. However, this abrupt transition was not user-friendly. Hence, I wanted to explore better ways to handle dataset refreshes with smooth transitions, similar to the original example, even when dealing with datasets with different x-scales and ranges.
The approach I last tried felt jarring:
// delete old
d3.select("#" + divId).select("svg").remove();
// then recreate all new
In an attempt to improve this process of refreshing the dataset (integrated with AngularJS), I followed a step-by-step method. I initialized common parameters first and then checked if the SVG element existed. If it did not exist, I added everything new; otherwise, I tried to update it. Despite going through the code bit by bit, I couldn't figure out why the refresh function failed to eliminate all previous dataset information related to the x-axis scale.
var divId = $scope.histogramData.divId;
var color = $scope.histogramData.color;
var values = $scope.histogramData.data[$scope.histogramData.selected];
var svg = $scope.histogramData.svg;
// Common plot initialization
var margin = {top: 40, right: 20, bottom: 20, left: 20},
width = 450 - margin.left - margin.right,
height = 370 - margin.top - margin.bottom;
var max = d3.max(values);
var min = d3.min(values);
var x = d3.scale.linear()
.domain([min, max])
.range([0, width]);
// Generate a histogram with twenty uniformly-spaced bins.
var data = d3.layout.histogram()
.bins(x.ticks(10))
(values);
var yMax = d3.max(data, function(d){ return d.length });
var yMin = d3.min(data, function(d){ return d.length });
var colorScale = d3.scale.linear()
.domain([yMin, yMax])
.range([d3.rgb(color).brighter(), d3.rgb(color).darker()]);
var y = d3.scale.linear()
.domain([0, yMax])
.range([height, 0]);
var xAxis = d3.svg.axis()
.scale(x)
.orient("bottom");
// ===================================================================
// Adding everything anew if SVG doesn't exist
// ===================================================================
if (svg === undefined) {
var svg = d3.select("#" + divId)
.append("svg")
.attr("width", width + margin.left + margin.right)
.attr("height", height + margin.top + margin.bottom)
.append("g")
.attr("transform", "translate(" + margin.left + "," + margin.top + ")");
$scope.histogramData.svg = svg;
var bar = svg.selectAll(".bar")
.data(data)
.enter()
.append("g")
.attr("class", "bar")
.attr("transform", function(d) { return "translate(" + x(d.x) + "," + y(d.y) + ")"; });
bar.append("rect")
.attr("x", 1)
.attr("width", (x(data[0].dx) - x(0)) - 1)
.attr("height", function(d) { return height - y(d.y); })
.attr("fill", function(d) { return colorScale(d.y) });
bar.append("text")
.attr("dy", ".75em")
.attr("y", -12)
.attr("x", (x(data[0].dx) - x(0)) / 2)
.attr("text-anchor", "middle")
.text(function(d) { return formatCount(d.y); });
var gTitle = svg.append("text")
.attr("x", 0)
.attr("y", 0 - (margin.top / 2))
.attr("text-anchor", "left")
.classed("label", true)
.text($scope.histogramData.spec[selected]);
$scope.histogramData.gTitle = gTitle;
var gAxis = svg.append("g")
.attr("class", "x axis")
.attr("transform", "translate(0," + height + ")")
.call(xAxis);
$scope.histogramData.gAxis = gAxis;
} else {
// ===================================================================
// Attempting to refresh if the SVG exists
// ===================================================================
var bar = svg.selectAll(".bar").data(data);
bar.exit().remove();
bar.transition()
.duration(1000)
.attr("transform", function(d) { return "translate(" + x(d.x) + "," + y(d.y) + ")"; });
bar.select("rect")
.transition()
.duration(1000)
.attr("height", function(d) { return height - y(d.y); })
.attr("fill", function(d) { return colorScale(d.y) });
bar.select("text")
.transition()
.duration(1000)
.text(function(d) { return formatCount(d.y); });
var gTitle = $scope.histogramData.gTitle;
gTitle.transition()
.duration(1000)
.text($scope.histogramData.spec[selected]);
var gAxis = $scope.histogramData.gAxis;
gAxis.transition()
.duration(1000)
.call(xAxis);
}