ckhung / colchart

convert csv or tabulated numerical data into x-y-z list for gnuplot to create column chart (3-d bar chart)

colchart

Drawing a pseudo 3D bar graph in gnuplot requires preprocessing the data. This program is the answer to the homework problem posed by the above link.

中文： 從試算表產生柱柱圖（三次元長條圖）。

1. For the Impatient

Usage:

    ./mat2list.pl -r '1987:' -c '1:' temperature.csv > rugged.txt
    ./pt2sq.pl rugged.txt > colchart.txt

Then inside gnuplot:

    load "colchart.gpt"

to draw the column chart (3d bar chart) and generate two png files "rugged.png" and "colchart.png".

2. The Sample Data

The sample data is the deviation of the monthly average temperature from the average temperature of 1951-1980 means of the corresponding month for the North Hemisphere (land + ocean). It is taken from NASA's GISS Surface Temperature Analysis. Only rows corresponding to years 1987-2016 and columns corresponding to the 12 months are retained.

3. mat2list.pl

This script reads a csv file or a space-delimited tabulated matrix of numbers (e.g. generated by a spreadsheet program) and converts it into lines of the format: row_label column_label matrix_entry. An extra blank line is inserted after the last entry of each row. When fed as a data file to the "splot" command of gnuplot, this kind of file is interpreted as x-, y-, and z-coordinates, and the result is a (rugged) grid plot.

Usage example: ./mat2list.pl -r '1987:' -c '1:' temperature.csv > rugged.txt It can also read from standard input: ./mat2list.pl -r '1987:' -c '1:' < temperature.csv > rugged.txt

The following command line options are available:

-c m:n column labels (x-coordinates) starts at m and increments by n for each column.

-r m:n row labels (y-coordinates) starts at m and increments by n for each row.

-d ':' input delimiter is ':' instead of ','

-t transpose the output. That is, output lines of the format instead: row_label column_label matrix_entry.

For -c and -r, the starting number is 0 if omitted, and the step number is 1 if omitted. Instead of a pair of colon-separated numbers, the argument to -r or -c can also be a list of space-separated numbers, directly specifying the labels themselves.

4. pt2sq.pl

Suppose you have a data file rugged.txt (e.g. generated by mat2list.pl) consisting of lines of the format: x_coord y_coord z_coord where the x-coordinates and y-coordinates form a rectangular grid.

In order to create a column chart (3d version of a normal bar chart), we need to expand the data by converting every input line into 4 vertices of the same height (z-coordinate) that surround the original vertex. In general, each new vertex should be placed at the center of 4 original neighboring vertices. Some original vertices (i.e. those at the border of the plot) don't have neighbors and therefore the corresponding new vertices' x- and y-coordinates have to be guessed.

The pt2sq.pl script does this expansion by taking the -x and -y options that specify the x-spacing and y-spacing of the original data. These options default to 1.0 if they are missing. That is, pt2sq.pl does not infer the spacing from the input data.

Usage example: ./pt2sq.pl rugged.txt > colchart.txt It can also read from standard input: ./pt2sq.pl < rugged.txt > colchart.txt

Then you can splot "colchart.txt" inside gnuplot and get the column chart.