GD::Graph - phpMan

Command: man perldoc info search(apropos)  


Sections
NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION DISTRIBUTION STATUS EXAMPLES USAGE METHODS OPTIONS COLOURS FONTS HOTSPOTS ERROR HANDLING NOTES BUGS AUTHOR SEE ALSO
NAME
    GD::Graph - Graph Plotting Module for Perl 5

SYNOPSIS
    use GD::Graph::moduleName;

DESCRIPTION
    GD::Graph is a *perl5* module to create charts using the GD module. The
    following classes for graphs with axes are defined:

    "GD::Graph::lines"
        Create a line chart.

    "GD::Graph::bars" and "GD::Graph::hbars"
        Create a bar chart with vertical or horizontal bars.

    "GD::Graph::points"
        Create an chart, displaying the data as points.

    "GD::Graph::linespoints"
        Combination of lines and points.

    "GD::Graph::area"
        Create a graph, representing the data as areas under a line.

    "GD::Graph::mixed"
        Create a mixed type graph, any combination of the above. At the
        moment this is fairly limited. Some of the options that can be used
        with some of the individual graph types won't work very well. Bar
        graphs drawn after lines or points graphs may obscure the earlier
        data, and specifying bar_width will not produce the results you
        probably expected.

    Additional types:

    "GD::Graph::pie"
        Create a pie chart.

DISTRIBUTION STATUS
    Distribution has no releases since 2007. It has new maintainer starting
    of 1.45 and my plan is to keep modules backwards compatible as much as
    possible, fix bugs with test cases, apply patches and release new
    versions to the CPAN.

    I got repository from Martien without Benjamin's work, Benjamin couldn't
    find his repository, so everything else is imported from CPAN and
    BackPAN. Now it's all on github <https://github.com/ruz/GDGraph>. May be
    at some point Benjamin will find his VCS backup and we can restore full
    history.

    Release 1.44_01 (development release) was released in 2007 by Benjamin,
    but never made into production version. This dev version contains very
    nice changes (truecolor, anti-aliasing and alpha support), but due to
    nature of how GD and GD::Graph works authors had to add third optional
    argument (truecolor) to all constructors in GD::Graph modules. I think
    that this should be and can be adjusted to receive named arguments in
    constructor and still be backwards compatible. If you were using that
    dev release and want to fast forward inclusion of this work into
    production release then contact ruz AT cpan.org

    Martien also has changes in his repository that were never published to
    CPAN. These are smaller and well isolated, so I can merge them faster.

    My goal at this moment is to merge existing versions together, get rid
    of CVS reminders, do some repo cleanup, review existing tickets on
    rt.cpan.org. Join if you want to help.

EXAMPLES
    See the samples directory in the distribution, and read the Makefile
    there.

USAGE
    Fill an array of arrays with the x values and the values of the data
    sets. Make sure that every array is the same size, otherwise *GD::Graph*
    will complain and refuse to compile the graph.

      @data = (
        ["1st","2nd","3rd","4th","5th","6th","7th", "8th", "9th"],
        [    1,    2,    5,    6,    3,  1.5,    1,     3,     4],
        [ sort { $a <=> $b } (1, 2, 5, 6, 3, 1.5, 1, 3, 4) ]
      );

    If you don't have a value for a point in a certain dataset, you can use
    undef, and the point will be skipped.

    Create a new *GD::Graph* object by calling the *new* method on the graph
    type you want to create (*chart* is *bars*, *hbars*, *lines*, *points*,
    *linespoints*, *mixed* or *pie*).

      my $graph = GD::Graph::chart->new(400, 300);

    Set the graph options.

      $graph->set(
          x_label           => 'X Label',
          y_label           => 'Y label',
          title             => 'Some simple graph',
          y_max_value       => 8,
          y_tick_number     => 8,
          y_label_skip      => 2
      ) or die $graph->error;

    and plot the graph.

      my $gd = $graph->plot(\@data) or die $graph->error;

    Then do whatever your current version of GD allows you to do to save the
    file. For versions of GD older than 1.19 (or more recent than 2.15),
    you'd do something like:

      open(IMG, '>file.gif') or die $!;
      binmode IMG;
      print IMG $gd->gif;
      close IMG;

    and for newer versions (1.20 and up) you'd write

      open(IMG, '>file.png') or die $!;
      binmode IMG;
      print IMG $gd->png;

    or

      open(IMG, '>file.gd2') or die $!;
      binmode IMG;
      print IMG $gd->gd2;

    Then there's also of course the possibility of using a shorter version
    (for each of the export functions that GD supports):

      print IMG $graph->plot(\@data)->gif;
      print IMG $graph->plot(\@data)->png;
      print IMG $graph->plot(\@data)->gd;
      print IMG $graph->plot(\@data)->gd2;

    If you want to write something that doesn't require your code to 'know'
    whether to use gif or png, you could do something like:

      if ($gd->can('png')) { # blabla }

    or you can use the convenience method "export_format":

      my $format = $graph->export_format;
      open(IMG, ">file.$format") or die $!;
      binmode IMG;
      print IMG $graph->plot(\@data)->$format();
      close IMG;

    or for CGI programs:

      use CGI qw(:standard);
      #...
      my $format = $graph->export_format;
      print header("image/$format");
      binmode STDOUT;
      print $graph->plot(\@data)->$format();

    (the parentheses after $format are necessary, to help the compiler
    decide that you mean a method name there)

    See under "SEE ALSO" for references to other documentation, especially
    the FAQ.

METHODS
  Methods for all graphs
    GD::Graph::chart->new([width,height])
        Create a new object $graph with optional width and height. Default
        width = 400, default height = 300. *chart* is either *bars*,
        *lines*, *points*, *linespoints*, *area*, *mixed* or *pie*.

    $graph->set_text_clr(*colour name*)
        Set the colour of the text. This will set the colour of the titles,
        labels, and axis labels to *colour name*. Also see the options
        *textclr*, *labelclr* and *axislabelclr*.

    $graph->set_title_font(font specification)
        Set the font that will be used for the title of the chart. See
        "FONTS".

    $graph->plot(*\@data*)
        Plot the chart, and return the GD::Image object.

    $graph->set(attrib1 => value1, attrib2 => value2 ...)
        Set chart options. See OPTIONS section.

    $graph->get(attrib1, attrib2)
        Returns a list of the values of the attributes. In scalar context
        returns the value of the first attribute only.

    $graph->gd()
        Get the GD::Image object that is going to be used to draw on. You
        can do this either before or after calling the plot method, to do
        your own drawing.

        Note: as of the current version, this GD::Image object will always
        be palette-based, even if the installed version of GD supports
        true-color images.

        Note also that if you draw on the GD::Image object before calling
        the plot method, you are responsible for making sure that the
        background colour is correct and for setting transparency.

    $graph->export_format()
        Query the export format of the GD library in use. In scalar context,
        it returns 'gif', 'png' or undefined, which is sufficient for most
        people's use. In a list context, it returns a list of all the
        formats that are supported by the current version of GD. It can be
        called as a class or object method

    $graph->can_do_ttf()
        Returns true if the current GD library supports TrueType fonts,
        False otherwise. Can also be called as a class method or static
        method.

  Methods for Pie charts
    $graph->set_label_font(font specification)
    $graph->set_value_font(font specification)
        Set the font that will be used for the label of the pie or the
        values on the pie. See "FONTS".

  Methods for charts with axes.
    $graph->set_x_label_font(font specification)
    $graph->set_y_label_font(font specification)
    $graph->set_x_axis_font(font specification)
    $graph->set_y_axis_font(font specification)
    $graph->set_values_font(font specification)
        Set the font for the x and y axis label, the x and y axis value
        labels, and for the values printed above the data points. See
        "FONTS".

    $graph->get_hotspot($dataset, $point)
        Experimental: Return a coordinate specification for a point in a
        dataset. Returns a list. If the point is not specified, returns a
        list of array references for all points in the dataset. If the
        dataset is also not specified, returns a list of array references
        for each data set. See "HOTSPOTS".

    $graph->get_feature_coordinates($feature_name)
        Experimental: Return a coordinate specification for a certain
        feature in the chart. Currently, features that are defined are
        *axes*, the coordinates of the rectangle within the axes; *x_label*,
        *y1_label* and *y2_label*, the labels printed along the axes, with
        *y_label* provided as an alias for *y1_label*; and *title* which is
        the title text box. See "HOTSPOTS".

OPTIONS
  Options for all graphs
    width, height
        The width and height of the canvas in pixels Default: 400 x 300. NB
        At the moment, these are read-only options. If you want to set the
        size of a graph, you will have to do that with the *new* method.

    t_margin, b_margin, l_margin, r_margin
        Top, bottom, left and right margin of the canvas. These margins will
        be left blank. Default: 0 for all.

    logo
        Name of a logo file. Generally, this should be the same format as
        your version of GD exports images in. Currently, this file may be in
        any format that GD can import, but please see GD if you use an XPM
        file and get unexpected results.

        Default: no logo.

    logo_resize, logo_position
        Factor to resize the logo by, and the position on the canvas of the
        logo. Possible values for logo_position are 'LL', 'LR', 'UL', and
        'UR'. (lower and upper left and right). Default: 'LR'.

    transparent
        If set to a true value, the produced image will have the background
        colour marked as transparent (see also option *bgclr*). Default: 1.

    interlaced
        If set to a true value, the produced image will be interlaced.
        Default: 1.

        Note: versions of GD higher than 2.0 (that is, since GIF support was
        restored after being removed owing to patent issues) do not support
        interlacing of GIF images. Support for interlaced PNG and
        progressive JPEG images remains available using this option.

  Colours
    bgclr, fgclr, boxclr, accentclr, shadowclr
        Drawing colours used for the chart: background, foreground (axes and
        grid), axis box fill colour, accents (bar, area and pie outlines),
        and shadow (currently only for bars).

        All colours should have a valid value as described in "COLOURS",
        except boxclr, which can be undefined, in which case the box will
        not be filled.

    shadow_depth
        Depth of a shadow, positive for right/down shadow, negative for
        left/up shadow, 0 for no shadow (default). Also see the "shadowclr"
        and "bar_spacing" options.

    labelclr, axislabelclr, legendclr, valuesclr, textclr
        Text Colours used for the chart: label (labels for the axes or pie),
        axis label (misnomer: values printed along the axes, or on a pie
        slice), legend text, shown values text, and all other text.

        All colours should have a valid value as described in "COLOURS".

    dclrs (short for datacolours)
        This controls the colours for the bars, lines, markers, or pie
        slices. This should be a reference to an array of colour names as
        defined in GD::Graph::colour ("perldoc GD::Graph::colour" for the
        names available).

            $graph->set( dclrs => [ qw(green pink blue cyan) ] );

        The first (fifth, ninth) data set will be green, the next pink, etc.

        A colour can be "undef", in which case the data set will not be
        drawn. This can be useful for cumulative bar sets where you want
        certain data series (often the first one) not to show up, which can
        be used to emulate error bars (see examples 1-7 and 6-3 in the
        distribution).

        Default: [ qw(lred lgreen lblue lyellow lpurple cyan lorange) ]

    borderclrs
        This controls the colours of the borders of the bars data sets. Like
        dclrs, it is a reference to an array of colour names as defined in
        GD::Graph::colour. Setting a border colour to "undef" means the
        border will not be drawn.

    cycle_clrs
        If set to a true value, bars will not have a colour from "dclrs" per
        dataset, but per point. The colour sequence will be identical for
        each dataset. Note that this may have a weird effect if you are
        drawing more than one data set. If this is set to a value larger
        than 1 the border colour of the bars will cycle through the colours
        in "borderclrs".

    accent_treshold
        Not really a colour, but it does control a visual aspect: Accents on
        bars are only drawn when the width of a bar is larger than this
        number of pixels. Accents inside areas are only drawn when the
        horizontal distance between points is larger than this number.
        Default 4

  Options for graphs with axes.
    options for *bars*, *lines*, *points*, *linespoints*, *mixed* and *area*
    charts.

    x_label, y_label
        The labels to be printed next to, or just below, the axes. Note that
        if you use the two_axes option that you need to use y1_label and
        y2_label.

    long_ticks, tick_length
        If *long_ticks* is a true value, ticks will be drawn the same length
        as the axes. Otherwise ticks will be drawn with length
        *tick_length*. if *tick_length* is negative, the ticks will be drawn
        outside the axes. Default: long_ticks = 0, tick_length = 4.

        These attributes can also be set for x and y axes separately with
        x_long_ticks, y_long_ticks, x_tick_length and y_tick_length.

    x_ticks
        If *x_ticks* is a true value, ticks will be drawn for the x axis.
        These ticks are subject to the values of *long_ticks* and
        *tick_length*. Default: 1.

    y_tick_number
        Number of ticks to print for the Y axis. Use this, together with
        *y_label_skip* to control the look of ticks on the y axis. Default:
        5.

    y_number_format
        This can be either a string, or a reference to a subroutine. If it
        is a string, it will be taken to be the first argument to a sprintf,
        with the value as the second argument:

            $label = sprintf( $s->{y_number_format}, $value );

        If it is a code reference, it will be executed with the value as the
        argument:

            $label = &{$s->{y_number_format}}($value);

        This can be useful, for example, if you want to reformat your values
        in currency, with the - sign in the right spot. Something like:

            sub y_format
            {
                my $value = shift;
                my $ret;

                if ($value >= 0)
                {
                    $ret = sprintf("\$%d", $value * $refit);
                }
                else
                {
                    $ret = sprintf("-\$%d", abs($value) * $refit);
                }

                return $ret;
            }

            $graph->set( 'y_number_format' => \&y_format );

        (Yes, I know this can be much shorter and more concise)

        Default: undef.

    y1_number_format, y2_number_format
        As with *y_number_format*, these can be either a string, or a
        reference to a subroutine. These are used as formats for graphs with
        two y-axis scales so that independent formats can be used.

        For compatibility purposes, each of these will fall back on
        *y_number_format* if not specified.

        Default: undef for both.

    x_label_skip, y_label_skip
        Print every *x_label_skip*th number under the tick on the x axis,
        and every *y_label_skip*th number next to the tick on the y axis.
        Default: 1 for both.

    x_last_label_skip
        By default, when *x_label_skip* is set to something higher than 1,
        the last label on the axis will be printed, even when it doesn't
        belong to the normal series that should be printed. Setting this to
        a true value prevents that.

        For example, when your X values are the months of the year (i.e. Jan
        - Dec), and you set *x_label_skip* to 3, the months printed on the
        axis will be Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct and Dec; even though Dec does not
        really belong to that sequence. If you do not like the last month to
        be printed, set *x_last_label_skip* to a true value.

        This option has no effect in other circumstances. Also see
        *x_tick_offset* for another method to make this look better.
        Default: 0 for both

    x_tick_offset
        When *x_label_skip* is used, this will skip the first
        *x_tick_offset* values in the labels before starting to print. Let
        me give an example. If you have a series of X labels like

          qw(Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec)

        and you set *x_label_skip* to 3, you will see ticks on the X axis
        for Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct and Dec. This is not always what is wanted.
        If you set *x_tick_offset* to 1, you get Feb, May, Aug, Nov and Dec,
        and if you set it to 2, you get Mar, Jun Sep and Dec, and this last
        one definitely looks better. A combination of 6 and 5 also works
        nice for months.

        Note that the value for *x_tick_offset* is periodical. This means
        that it will have the same effect for each integer n in
        *x_tick_offset* + n * *x_label_skip*.

        Also see *x_last_label_skip* for another method to influence this.

    x_all_ticks
        Force a print of all the x ticks, even if x_label_skip is set to a
        value Default: 0.

    x_label_position
        Controls the position of the X axis label (title). The value for
        this should be between 0 and 1, where 0 means aligned to the left, 1
        means aligned to the right, and 1/2 means centered. Default: 3/4

    y_label_position
        Controls the position of both Y axis labels (titles). The value for
        this should be between 0 and 1, where 0 means aligned to the bottom,
        1 means aligned to the top, and 1/2 means centered. Default: 1/2

    x_labels_vertical
        If set to a true value, the X axis labels will be printed
        vertically. This can be handy in case these labels get very long.
        Default: 0.

    x_plot_values, y_plot_values
        If set to a true value, the values of the ticks on the x or y axes
        will be plotted next to the tick. Also see *x_label_skip,
        y_label_skip*. Default: 1 for both.

    box_axis
        Draw the axes as a box, if true. Default: 1.

    no_axes
        Draw no axes at all. If this is set to undef, all axes are drawn. If
        it is set to 0, the zero axis will be drawn, *for bar charts only*.
        If this is set to a true value, no axes will be drawn at all. Value
        labels on the axes and ticks will also not be drawn, but axis lables
        are drawn. Default: undef.

    two_axes
        Use two separate axes for the first and second data set. The first
        data set will be set against the left axis, the second against the
        right axis. If more than two data sets are being plotted, the
        use_axis option should be used to specify which data sets use which
        axis.

        Note that if you use this option, that you need to use y1_label and
        y2_label, instead of just y_label, if you want the two axes to have
        different labels. The same goes for some other options starting with
        the letter 'y' and an underscore.

        Default: 0.

    use_axis
        If two y-axes are in use and more than two datasets are specified,
        set this option to an array reference containing a value of 1 or 2
        (for the left and right scales respectively) for each dataset being
        plotted. That is, to plot three datasets with the second on a
        different scale than the first and third, set this to "[1,2,1]".

        Default: [1,2].

    zero_axis
        If set to a true value, the axis for y values of 0 will always be
        drawn. This might be useful in case your graph contains negative
        values, but you want it to be clear where the zero value is. (see
        also *zero_axis_only* and *box_axes*). Default: 0.

    zero_axis_only
        If set to a true value, the zero axis will be drawn (see
        *zero_axis*), and no axis at the bottom of the graph will be drawn.
        The labels for X values will be placed on the zero axis. Default: 0.

    y_max_value, y_min_value
        Maximum and minimum value displayed on the y axis.

        The range (y_min_value..y_max_value) has to include all the values
        of the data points, or *GD::Graph* will die with a message.

        For bar and area graphs, the range (y_min_value..y_max_value) has to
        include 0. If it doesn't, the values will be adapted before
        attempting to draw the graph.

        Default: Computed from data sets.

    y1_max_value, y1_min_value, y2_max_value, y2_min_value
        Maximum and minimum values for left (y1) and right (y2) axes when
        two_axes is a true value. Take precedence over y_min_value and
        y_max_value.

        By default 0 of the left axis is aligned with 0 of the right axis,
        it's not true if any of these options is defined.

        Otherwise behaviour and default values are as with y_max_value and
        y_min_value.

    y_min_range, y1_min_range, y2_min_range
        Minimal range between min and max values on y axis that is used to
        adjust computed y_min_value and y_max_value.

        NOTE that author of the feature implemented this for two_axes case
        only, patches are wellcome to expand over one y axis.

        If two_axes is a true value, then y1_min_range and y2_min_range take
        precedence over y_min_range value.

        Default: undef

    axis_space
        This space will be left blank between the axes and the tick value
        text. Default: 4.

    text_space
        This space will be left open between text elements and the graph
        (text elements are title and axis labels.

        Default: 8.

    cumulate
        If this attribute is set to a true value, the data sets will be
        cumulated. This means that they will be stacked on top of each
        other. A side effect of this is that "overwrite" will be set to a
        true value.

        Notes: This only works for bar and area charts at the moment.

        If you have negative values in your data sets, setting this option
        might produce odd results. Of course, the graph itself would be
        quite meaningless.

    overwrite
        If set to 0, bars of different data sets will be drawn next to each
        other. If set to 1, they will be drawn in front of each other.
        Default: 0.

        Note: Setting overwrite to 2 to produce cumulative sets is
        deprecated, and may disappear in future versions of GD::Graph.
        Instead see the "cumulate" attribute.

    correct_width
        If this is set to a true value and "x_tick_number" is false, then
        the width of the graph (or the height for rotated graphs like
        "GD::Graph::hbar") will be recalculated to make sure that each data
        point is exactly an integer number of pixels wide. You probably
        never want to fiddle with this.

        When this value is true, you will need to make sure that the number
        of data points is smaller than the number of pixels in the plotting
        area of the chart. If you get errors saying that your horizontal
        size if too small, you may need to manually switch this off, or
        consider using something else than a bar type for your chart.

        Default: 1 for bar, calculated at runtime for mixed charts, 0 for
        others.

  Plotting data point values with the data point
    Sometimes you will want to plot the value of a data point or bar above
    the data point for clarity. GD::Graph allows you to control this in a
    generic manner, or even down to the single point.

    show_values
        Set this to 1 to display the value of each data point above the
        point or bar itself. No effort is being made to ensure that there is
        enough space for the text.

        Set this to a GD::Graph::Data object, or an array reference of the
        same shape, with the same dimensions as your data object that you
        pass in to the plot method. The reason for this option is that it
        allows you to make a copy of your data set, and selectively set
        points to "undef" to disable plotting of them.

          my $data = GD::Graph::Data->new(
            [ [ 'A', 'B', 'C' ], [ 1, 2, 3 ], [ 11, 12, 13 ] ]);
          my $values = $data->copy;
          $values->set_y(1, 1, undef);
          $values->set_y(2, 0, undef);

          $graph->set(show_values => $values);
          $graph->plot($data);

        Default: 0.

    values_vertical
        If set to a true value, the values will be printed vertically,
        instead of horizontally. This can be handy if the values are long
        numbers. Default: 0.

    values_space
        Space to insert between the data point and the value to print.
        Default: 4.

    values_format
        How to format the values for display. See y_number_format for more
        information. Default: undef.

    hide_overlapping_values
        If set to a true value, the values that goes out of graph space are
        hidden. Option is EXPERIMENTAL, works only for bars, text still can
        overlap with other bars and labels, most useful only with text in
        the same direction as bars. Default: undef

  Options for graphs with a numerical X axis
    First of all: GD::Graph does not support numerical x axis the way it
    should. Data for X axes should be equally spaced. That understood: There
    is some support to make the printing of graphs with numerical X axis
    values a bit better, thanks to Scott Prahl. If the option
    "x_tick_number" is set to a defined value, GD::Graph will attempt to
    treat the X data as numerical.

    Extra options are:

    x_tick_number
        If set to *'auto'*, GD::Graph will attempt to format the X axis in a
        nice way, based on the actual X values. If set to a number, that's
        the number of ticks you will get. If set to undef, GD::Graph will
        treat X data as labels. Default: undef.

    x_min_value, x_max_value
        The minimum and maximum value to use for the X axis. Default:
        computed.

    x_min_range
        Minimal range of x axis.

        Default: undef

    x_number_format
        See y_number_format

    x_label_skip
        See y_label_skip

  Options for graphs with bars
    bar_width
        The width of a bar in pixels. Also see "bar_spacing". Use
        "bar_width" If you want to have fixed-width bars, no matter how wide
        the chart gets. Default: as wide as possible, within the constraints
        of the chart size and "bar_spacing" setting.

    bar_spacing
        Number of pixels to leave open between bars. This works well in most
        cases, but on some platforms, a value of 1 will be rounded off to 0.
        Use "bar_spacing" to get a fixed amount of space between bars, with
        variable bar widths, depending on the width of the chart. Note that
        if "bar_width" is also set, this setting will be ignored, and
        automatically calculated. Default: 0

    bargroup_spacing
        Number of pixels (in addition to whatever is specified in
        "bar_spacing") to leave between groups of bars when multiple
        datasets are being displayed. Unlike "bar_spacing", however, this
        parameter will hold its value if "bar_width" is set.

  Options for graphs with lines
    line_types
        Which line types to use for *lines* and *linespoints* graphs. This
        should be a reference to an array of numbers:

            $graph->set( line_types => [3, 2, 4] );

        Available line types are 1: solid, 2: dashed, 3: dotted, 4:
        dot-dashed.

        Default: [1] (always use solid)

    line_type_scale
        Controls the length of the dashes in the line types. default: 6.

    line_width
        The width of the line used in *lines* and *linespoints* graphs, in
        pixels. Default: 1.

    skip_undef
        For all other axes graph types, the default behaviour is (by their
        nature) to not draw a point when the Y value is "undef". For line
        charts the point gets skipped as well, but the line is drawn between
        the points n-1 to n+1 directly. If "skip_undef" has a true value,
        there will be a gap in the chart where a Y value is undefined.

        Note that a line will not be drawn unless there are *at least two*
        consecutive data points exist that have a defined value. The
        following data set will only plot a very short line towards the end
        if "skip_undef" is set:

          @data = (
            [ qw( Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct ) ],
            [ 1, undef, 2, undef, 3, undef, 4, undef, 5, 6 ]
          );

        This option is useful when you have a consecutive gap in your data,
        or with linespoints charts. If you have data where you have
        intermittent gaps, be careful when you use this. Default value: 0

  Options for graphs with points
    markers
        This controls the order of markers in *points* and *linespoints*
        graphs. This should be a reference to an array of numbers:

            $graph->set( markers => [3, 5, 6] );

        Available markers are: 1: filled square, 2: open square, 3:
        horizontal cross, 4: diagonal cross, 5: filled diamond, 6: open
        diamond, 7: filled circle, 8: open circle, 9: horizontal line, 10:
        vertical line. Note that the last two are not part of the default
        list.

        Default: [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]

    marker_size
        The size of the markers used in *points* and *linespoints* graphs,
        in pixels. Default: 4.

  Options for mixed graphs
    types
        A reference to an array with graph types, in the same order as the
        data sets. Possible values are:

          $graph->set( types => [qw(lines bars points area linespoints)] );
          $graph->set( types => ['lines', undef, undef, 'bars'] );

        values that are undefined or unknown will be set to "default_type".

        Default: all set to "default_type"

    default_type
        The type of graph to draw for data sets that either have no type
        set, or that have an unknown type set.

        Default: lines

  Graph legends (axestype graphs only)
    At the moment legend support is minimal.

    Methods

    $graph->set_legend(*@legend_keys*);
        Sets the keys for the legend. The elements of @legend_keys
        correspond to the data sets as provided to *plot()*.

        If a key is *undef* or an empty string, the legend entry will be
        skipped.

    $graph->set_legend_font(*font name*);
        Sets the font for the legend text (see "FONTS"). Default:
        GD::gdTinyFont.

    Options

    legend_placement
        Where to put the legend. This should be a two letter key of the
        form: 'B[LCR]|R[TCB]'. The first letter indicates the placement
        (*B*ottom or *R*ight), and the second letter the alignment (*L*eft,
        *R*ight, *C*enter, *T*op, or *B*ottom). Default: 'BC'

        If the legend is placed at the bottom, some calculations will be
        made to ensure that there is some 'intelligent' wrapping going on.
        if the legend is placed at the right, all entries will be placed
        below each other.

    legend_spacing
        The number of pixels to place around a legend item, and between a
        legend 'marker' and the text. Default: 4

    legend_marker_width, legend_marker_height
        The width and height of a legend 'marker' in pixels. Defaults: 12, 8

    lg_cols
        If you, for some reason, need to force the legend at the bottom to
        have a specific number of columns, you can use this. Default:
        computed

  Options for pie graphs
    3d  If set to a true value, the pie chart will be drawn with a 3d look.
        Default: 1.

    pie_height
        The thickness of the pie when *3d* is true. Default: 0.1 x height.

    start_angle
        The angle at which the first data slice will be displayed, with 0
        degrees being "6 o'clock". Default: 0.

    suppress_angle
        If a pie slice is smaller than this angle (in degrees), a label will
        not be drawn on it. Default: 0.

    label
        Print this label below the pie. Default: undef.

COLOURS
    All references to colours in the options for this module have been
    shortened to clr. The main reason for this was that I didn't want to
    support two spellings for the same word ('colour' and 'color')

    Wherever a colour is required, a colour name should be used from the
    package GD::Graph::colour. "perldoc GD::Graph::colour" should give you
    the documentation for that module, containing all valid colour names. I
    will probably change this to read the systems rgb.txt file if it is
    available.

FONTS
    Depending on your version of GD, this accepts both GD builtin fonts or
    the name of a TrueType font file. In the case of a TrueType font, you
    must specify the font size. See GD::Text for more details and other
    things, since all font handling in GD::Graph is delegated to there.

    Examples:

        $graph->set_title_font('/fonts/arial.ttf', 18);
        $graph->set_legend_font(gdTinyFont);
        $graph->set_legend_font(
            ['verdana', 'arial', gdMediumBoldFont], 12)

    (The above discussion is based on GD::Text 0.65. Older versions have
    more restrictive behaviour).

HOTSPOTS
    *Note that this is an experimental feature, and its interface may, and
    likely will, change in the future. It currently does not work for area
    charts or pie charts.*

    *A known problem with hotspots for GD::Graph::hbars is that the x and y
    coordinate come out transposed. This probably won't be fixed until the
    redesign of this section*

    GD::Graph keeps an internal set of coordinates for each data point and
    for certain features of a chart, like the title and axis labels. This
    specification is very similar to the HTML image map specification, and
    in fact exists mainly for that purpose. You can get at these hotspots
    with the "get_hotspot" method for data point, and
    "get_feature_coordinates" for the chart features.

    The <get_hotspot> method accepts two optional arguments, the number of
    the dataset you're interested in, and the number of the point in that
    dataset you're interested in. When called with two arguments, the method
    returns a list of one of the following forms:

      'rect', x1, y1, x2, y2
      'poly', x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3, ....
      'line', xs, ys, xe, ye, width

    The parameters for "rect" are the coordinates of the corners of the
    rectangle, the parameters for "poly" are the coordinates of the vertices
    of the polygon, and the parameters for the "line" are the coordinates
    for the start and end point, and the line width. It should be possible
    to almost directly translate these lists into HTML image map
    specifications.

    If the second argument to "get_hotspot" is omitted, a list of references
    to arrays will be returned. This list represents all the points in the
    dataset specified, and each array referred to is of the form outlined
    above.

      ['rect', x1, y1, x2, y2 ], ['rect', x1, y1, x2, y2], ...

    if both arguments to "get_hotspot" are omitted, the list that comes back
    will contain references to arrays for each data set, which in turn
    contain references to arrays for each point.

      [
        ['rect', x1, y1, x2, y2 ], ['rect', x1, y1, x2, y2], ...
      ],
      [
        ['line', xs, ys, xe, ye, w], ['line', xs, ys, xe, ye, w], ...
      ],...

    The "get_feature" method, when called with the name of a feature,
    returns a single array reference with a type and coordinates as
    described above. When called with no arguments, a hash reference is
    returned with the keys being all the currently defined and set features,
    and the values array references with the type and coordinates for each
    of those features.

ERROR HANDLING
    GD::Graph objects inherit from the GD::Graph::Error class (not the other
    way around), so they behave in the same manner. The main feature of that
    behaviour is that you have the error() method available to get some
    information about what went wrong. The GD::Graph methods all return
    undef if something went wrong, so you should be able to write safe
    programs like this:

      my $graph = GD::Graph->new()    or die GD::Graph->error;
      $graph->set( %attributes )      or die $graph->error;
      $graph->plot($gdg_data)         or die $graph->error;

    More advanced usage is possible, and there are some caveats with this
    error handling, which are all explained in GD::Graph::Error.

    Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to gracefully recover from an
    error in GD::Graph, so you really should get rid of the object, and
    recreate it from scratch if you want to recover. For example, to adjust
    the correct_width attribute if you get the error "Horizontal size too
    small" or "Vertical size too small" (in the case of hbar), you could do
    something like:

      sub plot_graph
      {
          my $data    = shift;
          my %attribs = @_;
          my $graph   = GD::Graph::bars->new()
             or die GD::Graph->error;
          $graph->set(%attribs)     or die $graph->error;
          $graph->plot($data)       or die $graph->error;
      }

      my $gd;
      eval { $gd = plot_graph(\@data, %attribs) };
      if ($@)
      {
          die $@ unless $@ =~ /size too small/;
          $gd = plot_graph(\@data, %attribs, correct_width => 0);
      }

    Of course, you could also adjust the width this way, and you can check
    for other errors.

NOTES
    As with all Modules for Perl: Please stick to using the interface. If
    you try to fiddle too much with knowledge of the internals of this
    module, you could get burned. I may change them at any time.

BUGS
    GD::Graph objects cannot be reused. To create a new plot, you have to
    create a new GD::Graph object.

    Rotated charts (ones with the X axis on the left) can currently only be
    created for bars. With a little work, this will work for all others as
    well. Please, be patient :)

    Other outstanding bugs can (alas) probably be found in the RT queue for
    this distribution, at
    http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=GDGraph

    If you think you have found a bug, please check first to see if it has
    already been reported. If it has not, please do (you can use the web
    interface above or send e-mail to <bug-GDGraph AT rt.org>). Bug
    reports should contain as many as possible of the following:

    *   a concise description of the buggy behavior and how it differs from
        what you expected,

    *   the versions of Perl, GD::Graph and GD that you are using,

    *   a short demonstration script that shows the bug in action,

    *   a patch that fixes it. :-)

    Of all of these, the third is probably the single most important, since
    producing a test case generally makes the explanation much more concise
    and understandable, as well as making it much simpler to show that the
    bug has been fixed. As an incidental benefit, if the bug is in fact
    caused by some code outside of GD::Graph, it will become apparent while
    you are writing the test case, thereby saving time and confusion for all
    concerned.

AUTHOR
    Martien Verbruggen <mgjv AT tradingpost.au>

    Current maintenance (including this release) by Benjamin Warfield
    <bwarfield AT cpan.org>

  Copyright
     GIFgraph: Copyright (c) 1995-1999 Martien Verbruggen.
     Chart::PNGgraph: Copyright (c) 1999 Steve Bonds.
     GD::Graph: Copyright (c) 1999 Martien Verbruggen.

    All rights reserved. This package is free software; you can redistribute
    it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

  Acknowledgements
    Thanks to Steve Bonds for releasing Chart::PNGgraph, and keeping the
    code alive when GD reached version 1.20, and I didn't have time to do
    something about it.

    Thanks to the following people for contributing code, or sending me
    fixes: Dave Belcher, Steve Bonds, Mike Bremford, Damon Brodie, Gary
    Deschaines, brian d foy, Edwin Hildebrand, Ari Jolma, Tim Meadowcroft,
    Honza Pazdziora, Scott Prahl, Ben Tilly, Vegard Vesterheim, Jeremy
    Wadsack.

    And some people whose real name I don't know, and whose email address
    I'd rather not publicise without their consent.

SEE ALSO
    GD::Graph::FAQ, GD::Graph::Data, GD::Graph::Error, GD::Graph::colour


Generated by phpMan Author: Che Dong On Apache Under GNU General Public License - MarkDown Format
2026-05-23 06:00 @216.73.217.24 CrawledBy Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)
Valid XHTML 1.0 TransitionalValid CSS!

^_back to top