||Plustcharts||
How to create a Column Chart using PHP and JavaScript
Column charts are the same as bar charts in many respects. They too consist of rectangular bars, that help compare and differentiate data. The following are the steps involved in creating a column chart using PHP and JavaScript with Pluscharts, a JavaScript charting library to build charts.
Step 1: Creating the MySQL table
For this, consider a table of data, consisting of seven data entries. The columns are labeled id, month and sales. This table can be created using the following code.
CREATE TABLE shop (
id INT NOT NULL,
month VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
sales INT NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id),
UNIQUE (month)
);
INSERT INTO shop
(id, month, sales)
VALUES
(1, “Jan”, 50),
(2, “Feb”, 10),
(3, “Mar”, 20),
(4, “Apr”, 20),
(5, “May”, 30),
(6, “Jun”, 10),
(7, “Jul”, 20);
Also read: Donut Chart Using PHP And JS
Step 2: Setting up the connection with the database
After entering the data in the database, you can start with creating your project folder and the main file. But before you begin with the main code, don’t forget to create a subfolder (optional), to hold the secondary files that need to be included in the main code.
Now, let us move to create a new file, that will contain a PHP code to fetch the data from the database.
<?php
$dbservername = “localhost”;
$dbusername = “”;
$dbpassword = “”;
$dbname = “test”;
$conn = mysqli_connect($dbservername, $dbusername, $dbpassword, $dbname);
if (!$conn) {
die(“Connection failed: “. mysqli_connect_error());
}
?>
Include the file, in the main file and in order to check the connection establishment, run the code in the browser, preferably Chrome. Store both sets of data, months and sales in two arrays.
<?php
include_once ‘dbh.php’;
$sql= “SELECT*FROM shop”;
$result= mysqli_query($conn, $sql);
$shops= array();
if (mysqli_num_rows($result) >0)
{
while ($row= mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
$shops[]= $row;
}
}
$a= array();
foreach ($shops as $shop) {
$a[]= $shop[‘sales’];
}
$b= array();
foreach ($shops as $shop) {
$b[]= $shop[‘month’];
}
?>
Step 3: Writing the Column Chart example code
Create an element, where you want to render your chart, using the following code.
For example, here we create an element with id, ‘column-chart-example’.
<div id=”column-chart-example”></div>
Now, since the pluscharts library is built upon d3, we load d3 first and then pluscharts, using the following scripts.
<script src=”https://d3js.org/d3.v5.min.js”></script>
<script src=”path-to/src/pluscharts.js”></script>
Next, assign the data from PHP variables to JS variables, using the following code.
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var sales= <?php echo json_encode($a ); ?>;
var months= <?php echo json_encode($b ); ?>;
After this, we can move to write a JavaScript code to create a column chart.
pluscharts.draw({
drawOn : ‘#column-chart-example’,
type: “column”,
dataset : {
data: [10, 20, 30, 40, 50],
backgroundColor: “#7d85df”, //can be array or single color
borderColor: “#2430b6”,
borderWidth: 2,
label: [“Jan”,”Feb”,”Mar”,”Apr”,”May”],
legendLabel: “Visitors”
},
options : {
barPadding: .5,
barWidth: 15,
text: {
display: true,
color: “#6c478c”
},
axes: {
x: {
display: true,
min: 0,
max: 100
},
y: {
display: true,
min: 0,
max: 100
}
},
legends: {
display: true,
width: 20,
height: 20
},
size: {
width: ‘container’, //give ‘container’ if you want width and height of initiated container
height: ‘400’
}
}
});
</script>
For better understanding let us break this code into parts.
pluscharts.draw
({ })
This function is used to initiate the chart. Under this draw function, we pass the details of the chart including the data and options as an argument to the draw() function.
drawOn : ‘#column-chart-example’,
The drawOn element is used to indicate the element where the chart is to be generated.
type: “column”,
The type of chart to be drawn is specified in the type element.
dataset: {
data: sales,
backgroundColor: “#7d85df”, //can be array or single color
borderColor: “#2430b6”,
borderWidth: 2,
label: months,
legendLabel: “Visitors”
},
The dataset is used to insert data values, background color, border color, border width, label and legend labels. Since we have assigned the data values to specific arrays, instead of specifying each value the array names “sales” and “labels” respectively, are mentioned here.
options: {
barPadding: .5,
text: {
display: true,
color: “#6c478c”
},
axes: {
x: {
display: true,
min: 0,
max: 100
},
y: {
display: true
}
},
legends: {
display: true,
width: 20,
height: 20
},
size: {
width: ‘container’, //give ‘container’ if you want the width and height of the initiated container
height: ‘400’
}
}
Also read: Key Elements For An Effective Dashboard Design
Options allow us to customize the chart. Here, we can set the bar padding and the colors of the bars representing the data. As the bar padding value increases, the width of the bar decreases. The color can be specified directly or a specific color code can be assigned. The minimum and maximum points on the x and y-axis can be indicated. The axis visibility can be controlled using the display function. There are also options to set the visibility and dimensions of legends. The total size of the chart can be customized here, where ‘container’ can be given in as a value when there is a need to set the chart to the same width and height as its initiated container.
