Making Pretty Pictures

GD::Graph

R

Chart::Clicker

This should have times across the bottom. It doesn't. I don't know why.

These three images are of the same thing, graphed with different tools. I start by getting the data for these arrays out of the database:

@number	#temp_f	@date
1	33	14:20
2	35	15:00
3	36	16:00
4	37	17:00
5	37	18:00
6	35	19:00
7	33	20:00
8	32	21:00
9	33	22:00
10	32	23:00
11	32	00:00
12	32	01:00
13	32	02:00
14	32	03:00
15	30	04:00
16	30	05:00
17	30	06:00
18	29	07:00
19	30	08:00
20	32	09:00

These three examples use the same basic information to draw the graph.

The database code

#!/usr/bin/perl

####################################
######   Draw Weather Graph   ######
####################################

use 5.010 ;
use strict ;
use warnings ;

use Chart::Clicker;
use Chart::Clicker::Context;
use Chart::Clicker::Data::DataSet;
use Chart::Clicker::Data::Marker;
use Chart::Clicker::Data::Series;
use Chart::Clicker::Renderer::Area;
use Chart::Clicker::Renderer::Point;
use Chart::Clicker::Renderer::StackedArea;
use Geometry::Primitive::Rectangle;
use Geometry::Primitive::Circle;
use Graphics::Color::RGB;
use Graphics::Primitive::Font;
use Graphics::Primitive::Brush;

use Data::Dumper ;
use DBI ;
use Getopt::Long ;
use IO::Interactive qw{ interactive } ;

use lib '/home/jacoby/lib' ;
use MyDB 'db_connect' ;
use subs qw{
    high low mean median mode range
    } ;

my $dbh = db_connect() ;
my $sql ;

$sql .= 'SELECT  ' ;
$sql .= 'time , ' ;
$sql .= 'temp_f   ' ;
$sql .= 'FROM weather WHERE zip = "47909"  ' ;
$sql .= 'AND HOUR( TIMEDIFF( SYSDATE() , time ) ) < 25 ' ;
$sql .= 'GROUP BY HOUR(time)' ;
$sql .= 'ORDER BY time' ;

my $hr = $dbh->selectall_arrayref( $sql ) or croak $dbh->errstr ;
my %tg ;

my @temp_f ;
my @date ;
my @number ;
my $count = 1 ;

for my $a ( @$hr ) {
    $$a[0] = join ':' , ( split m{:} , ( split m{\s}mx , $$a[0] )[1] )[0..1];
    push @date   , $$a[0] ;
    push @temp_f , $$a[1] ;
    push @number , $count++ ;
    }

Making the GD PNG

my @data = (
    [@date] ,
    [@temp_f]
    ) ;

my $graph = new GD::Graph::lines( 500,200 )  or die;
$graph->set(
      x_label           => 'Temperature',
      y_label           => 'Time',
      bgclr             => 'white' ,
      transparent       => 0 ,
      title             => 'Lafayette,IN Temperatures in F for the last 24 Hours',
  ) or die $graph->error;
$graph->set_title_font( '/home/jacoby/.fonts/trebuc.ttf' , 12 )  or die $graph->error;
$graph->set_legend_font( '/home/jacoby/.fonts/trebuc.ttf' , 8 )  or die $graph->error;
$graph->set_x_label_font( '/home/jacoby/.fonts/trebuc.ttf' , 10 )  or die $graph->error;
$graph->set_y_label_font( '/home/jacoby/.fonts/trebuc.ttf' , 10 )  or die $graph->error;
my $gd = $graph->plot(\@data) or die $graph->error;

open(IMG, '>' , '/home/jacoby/Desktop/24gd.png') or die $!;
binmode IMG;
print IMG $gd->png;

Making the R output

my $number =  join ',' , @number;
my $temp_f =  join ',' , @temp_f ;
my $date =  join ' , ' , ( map { qq("$_") }  @date );

my $r = <<"R" ;
#x <- (1:24)
x <- c( $number )
#x <- c( $date )
data <- c( $temp_f )
png(filename='/home/jacoby/Desktop/24r.png', width=500 ,height=200 )
plot(
    x ,
    data ,
    type='l',
    main='Lafayette,IN Temperatures in F for the last 24 Hours',
    xlab='Time' ,
    ylab='Temperature (f)'
    )
#axis( 1 , at=1:48 )
dev.off()
R

open my $rh , '>' , '/home/jacoby/Desktop/24r.R' ;
say $rh $r ;

Which then has R CMD BATCH filename.R run on it to plot the graph. I could put that in as a qx{} bit, but I didn't here. Normally, yes, I would and in fact we have several that do.

Making the Chart::Clicker PNG

my $cc = Chart::Clicker->new(width => 500, height => 200, format => 'png');
my $series1 = Chart::Clicker::Data::Series->new(
    keys    => \@number ,
    values  => \@temp_f ,
    );
my $dataset = Chart::Clicker::Data::DataSet->new(
    series  => [ $series1 ] ,
    );

$cc->title->text('Lafayette,IN Temperatures in F for the last 24 Hours');
$cc->add_to_datasets($dataset);

$cc->get_context('default')->domain_axis->tick_values($series1->keys);
$cc->get_context('default')->domain_axis->tick_labels(\@date);
$cc->get_context('default')->domain_axis->tick_label_angle(1);

$cc->get_context('default')->domain_axis->fudge_amount( 0.05 );
$cc->get_context('default')->range_axis->fudge_amount( 0.1 );

my $defctx = $cc->get_context('default');
$defctx->range_axis->label( ' Temperature ' );
$defctx->domain_axis->label('Time');
$defctx->renderer->brush->width(2);
$cc->write_output('/home/jacoby/Desktop/24cc.png');

The big win is that it's graphed right. The next win is that it's all Perl, so I don't need to go back and run a plotter on the output. The last win is that it looks good.

BTW, I find it interesting that, at least on Jan 14 2010, when I do an image search on Chart::Clicker, this blog gets the top spot.