Charting - open source packages

[Tommy Mato]

Can anyone recommend an open source charting package. My criteria are:

1. it must be easy to use and get going with ... rather than fancy
2. must be able to plot simple xy (point to point) line graphs
3. graph must be able to scroll left and right to display more of the data-set
4. must be able to plot multiple lines in different colors
5. gui rather than HTML

I hope someone can help. There are lots of hits when I do a Google search, but it takes ages to download trials/install/review each package/etc. I'm hoping a good recommendation can shortcut this tedious process.

Many thanks to anyoine who can help.

Regards,

Tom

[Ulf Dittmer]

Welcome to JavaRanch.

A large number of packages are listed at http://java-source.net/open-source/charting-and-reporting That page also contains brief descriptions which may help you cut down on candidates.

[Jared Cope]

Hi,

I use JFreeChart and am very happy with the results. I have not done your point 4, but I would be very surprised if it is not possible. Only downfall is that JFreeChart does not provide you with good example code. You have to pay for a manual, or go digging into the example code yourself (or try google). I am sure you are up to the challenge though, and it is quite simple.

Point 3 is probably more achieved by putting the graph (usually something on a JPanel) in a scrollable area by means of other Swing code. Not sure any package would support this out of the box but you could get lucky.

By the way Ulf, nice list. I have seen something that could be very useful to me at the moment.

Cheers, Jared.

[Tommy Mato]

Thanks for your help guys. I am currently evaluating JFreeChart - it's looking like it's what I need.

Cheers, Tom