How can I change the width of the bars in a highchart?

Question

With a bar chart like this one, is is possible to change the width of the bars to represent another data attribute, say the weight of the fruits. The heavier the fruit is, t

Answer 1

I use a set of area charts to simulate a variable-width-column/bar-chart. Say, each column/bar is represented by a rectangle area.

See my fiddle demo (http://jsfiddle.net/calfzhou/TUt2U/).

$(function () {
    var rawData = [
        { name: 'A', x: 5.2, y: 5.6 },
        { name: 'B', x: 3.9, y: 10.1 },
        { name: 'C', x: 11.5, y: 1.2 },
        { name: 'D', x: 2.4, y: 17.8 },
        { name: 'E', x: 8.1, y: 8.4 }
    ];

    function makeSeries(listOfData) {
        var sumX = 0.0;
        for (var i = 0; i < listOfData.length; i++) {
            sumX += listOfData[i].x;
        }
        var gap = sumX / rawData.length * 0.2;
        var allSeries = []
        var x = 0.0;
        for (var i = 0; i < listOfData.length; i++) {
            var data = listOfData[i];
            allSeries[i] = {
                name: data.name,
                data: [
                    [x, 0], [x, data.y],
                    {
                        x: x + data.x / 2.0,
                        y: data.y,
                        dataLabels: { enabled: true, format: data.x + ' x {y}' }
                    },
                    [x + data.x, data.y], [x + data.x, 0]
                ],
                w: data.x,
                h: data.y
            };
            x += data.x + gap;
        }
        return allSeries;
    }

    $('#container').highcharts({
        chart: { type: 'area' },
        xAxis: {
            tickLength: 0,
            labels: { enabled: false}
        },
        yAxis: {
            title: { enabled: false}
        },
        plotOptions: {
            area: {
                marker: {
                    enabled: false,
                    states: {
                        hover: { enabled: false }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        tooltip: {
            followPointer: true,
            useHTML: true,
            headerFormat: '{series.name}: ',
            pointFormat: '{series.options.w} x {series.options.h}'
        },
        series: makeSeries(rawData)
    });
});