Choosing an attractive linear scale for a graph's Y Axis

Question

I\'m writing a bit of code to display a bar (or line) graph in our software. Everything\'s going fine. The thing that\'s got me stumped is labeling the Y axis.

The

Answer 1

Here is a PHP example I am using. This function returns an array of pretty Y axis values that encompass the min and max Y values passed in. Of course, this routine could also be used for X axis values.

It allows you to "suggest" how many ticks you might want, but the routine will return what looks good. I have added some sample data and shown the results for these.

#!/usr/bin/php -q
 2)
    $ticks -= 2;
  // Get raw step value
  $tempStep = $range/$ticks;
  // Calculate pretty step value
  $mag = floor(log10($tempStep));
  $magPow = pow(10,$mag);
  $magMsd = (int)($tempStep/$magPow + 0.5);
  $stepSize = $magMsd*$magPow;

  // build Y label array.
  // Lower and upper bounds calculations
  $lb = $stepSize * floor($yMin/$stepSize);
  $ub = $stepSize * ceil(($yMax/$stepSize));
  // Build array
  $val = $lb;
  while(1)
  {
    $result[] = $val;
    $val += $stepSize;
    if($val > $ub)
      break;
  }
  return $result;
}

// Create some sample data for demonstration purposes
$yMin = 60;
$yMax = 330;
$scale =  makeYaxis($yMin, $yMax);
print_r($scale);

$scale = makeYaxis($yMin, $yMax,5);
print_r($scale);

$yMin = 60847326;
$yMax = 73425330;
$scale =  makeYaxis($yMin, $yMax);
print_r($scale);
?>

Result output from sample data

# ./test1.php
Array
(
    [0] => 60
    [1] => 90
    [2] => 120
    [3] => 150
    [4] => 180
    [5] => 210
    [6] => 240
    [7] => 270
    [8] => 300
    [9] => 330
)

Array
(
    [0] => 0
    [1] => 90
    [2] => 180
    [3] => 270
    [4] => 360
)

Array
(
    [0] => 60000000
    [1] => 62000000
    [2] => 64000000
    [3] => 66000000
    [4] => 68000000
    [5] => 70000000
    [6] => 72000000
    [7] => 74000000
)