Adding a graph

So, Hands up all those that have 'use(d) GD;'?

Now that includes me!

So, I needed to show a table of numbers in a bar chart format. Quite simply, I had an arrayref of hash refs, each hash ref using keys date and percentage.

First off, the GD plot needs it as an arrayref containing 2 arraysrefs, the first of the x-axis (in this case the date) and the second of the percentages. ($cmap is an object of in-house stuff to work out appropriate colours to use).

Easy

my $plot = [[],[]];
foreach my $href (@{$arrayref}) {
push $plot->[0], $href->{date};
push $plot->[1], $href->{percentage};
}

my $graph = GD::Graph::bars->new(1000,400);
$graph->set(
'dclrs' => [
map {
GD::Graph::colour::add_colour(q(#).$cmap->hex_by_name($_));
} (qw(red purple orange blue green yellow magenta cyan))],
'fgclr' => 'black',
'boxclr' => 'white',
'accentclr' => 'black',
'shadowclr' => 'black',
'y_long_ticks' => 1,
'x_label' => 'Date',
'y_label' => 'Percentage Activity'
);
return $graph->plot($plot)->png();

See, I said it was easy. :)

So, of course now I have said that, everyone wants their data in a graph format. Luckily, GD provides lots of graph formats. I just wish that we could submit to them as array of hrefs, rather than array of arrays, which I personlly think is

1) messier
2) relies on the end user to know the order the arrays should be in
3) Sends no additional information for legends (should this be needed), whereas the key can be the legend.

Oh well. I shouldn't complain really. I didn't have to write it. Don't you just love the CPAN!

(GD and it's suite of components by Lincoln D. Stein and searchable on CPAN. There are lots of additional stuff to link into Template::Toolkit, etc written by others. Have a look!)

FooMongers today. Don't yet know what we'll discuss.

Andy