1.1 Line plot
Description: Line plot
Keywords: pychart

##
1.1 Line plot

This example draws a simple line plot. Below is the source code needed to produce this chart.

/home/ysaito/pychart/demos/linetest.py

    # This line imports all the chart modules.
    from pychart import *
    theme.get_options()

    # We have 10 sample points total.  The first value in each tuple is
    # the X value, and subsequent values are Y values for different lines.
    data = [(10, 20, 30), (20, 65, 33),
            (30, 55, 30), (40, 45, 51),
            (50, 25, 27), (60, 75, 30),
            (70, 80, 42), (80, 62, 32),
            (90, 42, 39), (100, 32, 39)]

    # The format attribute specifies the text to be drawn at each tick mark.
    # Here, texts are rotated -60 degrees ("/a-60"), left-aligned ("/hL"),
    # and numbers are printed as integers ("%d").
    xaxis = axis.X(format="/a-60/hL%d", tic_interval = 20, label="Stuff")
    yaxis = axis.Y(tic_interval = 20, label="Value")

    # Define the drawing area. "y_range=(0,None)" tells that the Y minimum
    # is 0, but the Y maximum is to be computed automatically. Without
    # y_ranges, Pychart will pick the minimum Y value among the samples,
    # i.e., 20, as the base value of Y axis.
    ar = area.T(x_axis=xaxis, y_axis=yaxis, y_range=(0,None))

    # The first plot extracts Y values from the 2nd column
    # ("ycol=1") of DATA ("data=data"). X values are takes from the first
    # column, which is the default.
    plot = line_plot.T(label="foo", data=data, ycol=1, tick_mark=tick_mark.star)
    plot2 = line_plot.T(label="bar", data=data, ycol=2, tick_mark=tick_mark.square)

    ar.add_plot(plot, plot2)

    # The call to ar.draw() usually comes at the end of a program.  It
    # draws the axes, the plots, and the legend (if any).

    ar.draw()

To produce a PostScript chart, just feed the file to Python.

    % python linetest.py >linetest.eps

Or, to produce a PDF chart, run python like below

    % python linetest.py --format=pdf >linetest.pdf

To handle command-line options such as `-format=pdf`, you need to put `theme.get_options()` in the beginning of your file. PyChart also supports PNG, SVG, and interactive X11 display.

See Also:

Section 13 for more information about output control.

Every PyChart program starts with line "`from pychart import *`" to import classes and objects provided by PyChart. Each chart is represented by an `area` object (see Section 6), which defines the size , the coordinate system (linear, log, etc; see Section 6.1), and plots to be drawn. The final line of a program should end with `area.draw()`, which draws all the components of the chart to the standard output.