Charting Packages - Tick Label Customization?

[Michael K. Wilson]

This is a follow-up to my previous post.

I decided to use JFreeChart and whereas I like it and all, it doesn't seem to support customizing the tick labels (as Strings) on the x axis. It only seems to be able to display numbers or dates.

Can anyone recommend a different Java based charting package which allows the programmer to customize tick labels and also let the developer specify the number of ticks which are displayable?

-Mike
[ May 26, 2008: Message edited by: Michael K. Wilson ]

[Ulf Dittmer]

The way to customize the axes in JFreeChart is get the Plot object from the chart (chart.getPlot), and then to cast that to the appropriate subclass (XYPlot, CategoryPlot etc.). Then you can use the getDomainAxis and getRangeAxis methods to obtain ValueAxis and/or NumberAxis objects through which you can customize the axes.

If you're using cewolf you can do this in a ChartPostProcessor.

[Michael K. Wilson]

Not so... When you get the DomainAxis, you can only set labels for numbers or dates. What I am looking for is to set String labels.

private JFreeChart createChart(XYDataset dataset)
{
JFreeChart chart = ChartFactory.createTimeSeriesChart(
"", "Date", "My Chart", dataset, 
false, true, false);
chart.setBackgroundPaint(new Color(255, 255, 255));
XYPlot plot = (XYPlot) chart.getPlot();
plot.setBackgroundPaint(new Color(255, 255, 255));
plot.setDomainGridlinePaint(new Color(153, 153, 153));
plot.setRangeGridlinePaint(new Color(153, 153, 153));
plot.setAxisOffset(new RectangleInsets(1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0));
plot.setDomainCrosshairVisible(true);
plot.setRangeCrosshairVisible(true);
plot.setDomainGridlinesVisible(true);

XYItemRenderer r = plot.getRenderer();
if (r instanceof XYLineAndShapeRenderer) {
XYLineAndShapeRenderer renderer = (XYLineAndShapeRenderer) r;
renderer.setBaseShapesVisible(false);
renderer.setBaseShapesFilled(false);
renderer.setBaseItemLabelFont(new Font("SanSerif", Font.PLAIN, 9));
renderer.setSeriesPaint(0, new Color(83, 156, 77));
}
 
NumberAxis rangeAxis = (NumberAxis) plot.getRangeAxis();
rangeAxis.setStandardTickUnits(NumberAxis.createStandardTickUnits());
rangeAxis.setTickLabelInsets(new RectangleInsets(1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0));

DateAxis domainAxis = (DateAxis) plot.getDomainAxis();
domainAxis.setDateFormatOverride(new SimpleDateFormat("MM/yy"));
DateAxis.createStandardDateTickUnits();
 
domainAxis.setTickMarksVisible(true);
domainAxis.setTickLabelsVisible(true);
                // DateTickUnit dateTickUnit = new DateTickUnit(DateTickUnit.DAY, 12); 
                // domainAxis.setTickUnit(dateTickUnit); 
 
domainAxis.setTickLabelInsets(new RectangleInsets(1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0));
domainAxis.setMaximumDate(new Date());

return chart;
}

Thank you for responding!
[ May 26, 2008: Message edited by: Michael K. Wilson ]

[Ulf Dittmer]

Ah, I read you post a bit too quick and missed the part about strings.

Maybe a CategoryPlot would be better suited than an XYPlot in this case?

[Michael K. Wilson]

Category plots are well-suited for pie charts... What I am using is "time seried charts" (line based charts depending on time)...

Thanks guy!

[Ulf Dittmer]

You'll get a CategoryPlot for various chart types, not just pie charts. In this case, you could use a line chart. Then you'll have access to a CategoryAxis, which can handle any string you wish to display.