NAME
d.linegraph - Generates and displays simple line graphs in the active graphics monitor display frame.
KEYWORDS
display
SYNOPSIS
d.linegraph
d.linegraph help
d.linegraph x_file=string y_file=string[,string,...] [directory=string] [y_color=string[,string,...]] [title_color=string] [x_title=string] [y_title=string] [title=string] [--verbose] [--quiet]
Parameters:
- x_file=string
- Name of data file for X axis of graph
- y_file=string[,string,...]
- Name of data file(s) for Y axis of graph
- directory=string
- Path to file location
- Default: .
- y_color=string[,string,...]
- Color for Y data
- title_color=string
- Color for axis, tics, numbers, and title
- Default: black
- x_title=string
- Title for X data
- Default:
- y_title=string
- Title for Y data
- Default:
- title=string
- Title for Graph
- Default:
DESCRIPTION
d.linegraph is a primitive program to draw simple x,y line graphs
based on numerical data contained in separate files.
Data file format
The X and Y data files for the graph are essentially a column of numbers in
each file, with one input number per line. The program expects that each X
value will have a corresponding Y value, therefore the number of lines in
each data input file should be the same. Essentially, the X data becomes
the X axis reference to which the Y data is plotted as a line. Therefore,
the X data should be a monotonically increasing progression of numbers (i.e.
"1,2,3,..."; "0, 10, 100, 1000,..."; "...-5,-1,0,1,5..."). If multiple Y
data files are used, the Y axis scale will be based on the range of minimum
and maximum values from all Y files, then all Y data given will be graphed
according to that Y scale. Therefore, if multiple Y data inputs are used
with dissimilar units, the graph produced comparing the two will be
deceptive.
- directoryname
- Path to the directory where the input files are located. If this option
is not used, the d.linegraph looks for files in the current directory.
- Example format: directory/usr/grass/data/graph
- ycoloroption[,option,...]]
- Color to be used for drawing the lines in the graph. If multiple Y data
files are used, an equal number of colors may be used to control the colors
of the lines. Colors will be assigned to Y data in respect to the sequence
of instantiation on the command line. Options are listed below. By
default, a series of colors will be chosen by the program if none are
provided upon invocation.
- Order of default colors: yellow, red, green, violet, blue, orange, gray,
brown, magenta, white, indigo).
- titlecoloroption
- The color to be used for titles, axis lines, tics, and scale numbers.
- Default: "white"
- Color options: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet,
magenta, brown, gray, white, and black.
- xtitlevalue
- Title to describe X data. Will be centered beneath the graph. Default
is no title unless the need for a unit descriptor is computed by the program
(i.e. X: title in hundreds). Also, see NOTES section (below) for a format
caveat for multi-word titles.
- ytitlevalue
- Title to describe Y data. Will be centered beneath the X data title.
Default is no title unless the need for a unit descriptor is computed by
the program (i.e. Y: ttiittllee in thousands). Also, see NOTES section
(below) for a format caveat for multi-word titles. In the case of graphs
with multiple lines, one may wish to use more specific title placement by
using the d.text or v.label programs.
- titlevalue
- Title to describe the graph. Will be centered over the top of graph.
Default is no title. See NOTES section (below) for a format caveat for
multi-word titles.
NOTES
Since the command line parser is not amiable to multiple word inputs, to
input titles of more than one word, use the underscore character ("") to
represent spaces (" ").
Example: "titleCensusdata1990" would be printed over the graph as "Census
data 1990".
The way the program locates and labels tic marks is less than perfect: 1)
although distances between Y tics is proportional to the value, they are
not proportional on the X axis; 2) decimal values between -1 and 1 can be
printed on the X axis, but not on Y. (With respect to the later, the input
for Y values can all be multiplied by a factor of 10 before graphing).
It might be easier to use a 3rd party tool such as xgraph or GNUplot instead
of d.linegraph.
.
(You can make GNUplot output pretty by using its SVG or PostScript output
driver and converting that back into a rasterized image in a paint program)
SEE ALSO
d.frame,
d.text,
v.label
AUTHOR
Chris Rewerts, Agricultural Engineering, Purdue University
Last changed: $Date: 2008-08-14 23:16:42 -0700 (Thu, 14 Aug 2008) $
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