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

Based on @Gamecat's algorithm, I produced the following helper class

public struct Interval
{
    public readonly double Min, Max, TickRange;

    public static Interval Find(double min, double max, int tickCount, double padding = 0.05)
    {
        double range = max - min;
        max += range*padding;
        min -= range*padding;

        var attempts = new List<Interval>();
        for (int i = tickCount; i > tickCount / 2; --i)
            attempts.Add(new Interval(min, max, i));

        return attempts.MinBy(a => a.Max - a.Min);
    }

    private Interval(double min, double max, int tickCount)
    {
        var candidates = (min <= 0 && max >= 0 && tickCount <= 8) ? new[] {2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 7.5, 10} : new[] {2, 2.5, 5, 10};

        double unroundedTickSize = (max - min) / (tickCount - 1);
        double x = Math.Ceiling(Math.Log10(unroundedTickSize) - 1);
        double pow10X = Math.Pow(10, x);
        TickRange = RoundUp(unroundedTickSize/pow10X, candidates) * pow10X;
        Min = TickRange * Math.Floor(min / TickRange);
        Max = TickRange * Math.Ceiling(max / TickRange);
    }

    // 1 < scaled <= 10
    private static double RoundUp(double scaled, IEnumerable<double> candidates)
    {
        return candidates.First(candidate => scaled <= candidate);
    }
}

Answer 2

A long time ago I have written a graph module that covered this nicely. Digging in the grey mass gets the following:

• Determine lower and upper bound of the data. (Beware of the special case where lower bound = upper bound!
• Divide range into the required amount of ticks.
• Round the tick range up into nice amounts.
• Adjust the lower and upper bound accordingly.

Lets take your example:

15, 234, 140, 65, 90 with 10 ticks

1. lower bound = 15
2. upper bound = 234
3. range = 234-15 = 219
4. tick range = 21.9. This should be 25.0
5. new lower bound = 25 * round(15/25) = 0
6. new upper bound = 25 * round(1+235/25) = 250

So the range = 0,25,50,...,225,250

You can get the nice tick range with the following steps:

1. divide by 10^x such that the result lies between 0.1 and 1.0 (including 0.1 excluding 1).
2. translate accordingly:
   • 0.1 -> 0.1
   • <= 0.2 -> 0.2
   • <= 0.25 -> 0.25
   • <= 0.3 -> 0.3
   • <= 0.4 -> 0.4
   • <= 0.5 -> 0.5
   • <= 0.6 -> 0.6
   • <= 0.7 -> 0.7
   • <= 0.75 -> 0.75
   • <= 0.8 -> 0.8
   • <= 0.9 -> 0.9
   • <= 1.0 -> 1.0
3. multiply by 10^x.

In this case, 21.9 is divided by 10^2 to get 0.219. This is <= 0.25 so we now have 0.25. Multiplied by 10^2 this gives 25.

Lets take a look at the same example with 8 ticks:

15, 234, 140, 65, 90 with 8 ticks

1. lower bound = 15
2. upper bound = 234
3. range = 234-15 = 219
4. tick range = 27.375
   1. Divide by 10^2 for 0.27375, translates to 0.3, which gives (multiplied by 10^2) 30.
5. new lower bound = 30 * round(15/30) = 0
6. new upper bound = 30 * round(1+235/30) = 240

Which give the result you requested ;-).

------ Added by KD ------

Here's code that achieves this algorithm without using lookup tables, etc...:

double range = ...;
int tickCount = ...;
double unroundedTickSize = range/(tickCount-1);
double x = Math.ceil(Math.log10(unroundedTickSize)-1);
double pow10x = Math.pow(10, x);
double roundedTickRange = Math.ceil(unroundedTickSize / pow10x) * pow10x;
return roundedTickRange;

Generally speaking, the number of ticks includes the bottom tick, so the actual y-axis segments are one less than the number of ticks.

Answer 3

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
<?php

function makeYaxis($yMin, $yMax, $ticks = 10)
{
  // This routine creates the Y axis values for a graph.
  //
  // Calculate Min amd Max graphical labels and graph
  // increments.  The number of ticks defaults to
  // 10 which is the SUGGESTED value.  Any tick value
  // entered is used as a suggested value which is
  // adjusted to be a 'pretty' value.
  //
  // Output will be an array of the Y axis values that
  // encompass the Y values.
  $result = array();
  // If yMin and yMax are identical, then
  // adjust the yMin and yMax values to actually
  // make a graph. Also avoids division by zero errors.
  if($yMin == $yMax)
  {
    $yMin = $yMin - 10;   // some small value
    $yMax = $yMax + 10;   // some small value
  }
  // Determine Range
  $range = $yMax - $yMin;
  // Adjust ticks if needed
  if($ticks < 2)
    $ticks = 2;
  else if($ticks > 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
)

Answer 4

Converted this answer as Swift 4

extension Int {

    static func makeYaxis(yMin: Int, yMax: Int, ticks: Int = 10) -> [Int] {
        var yMin = yMin
        var yMax = yMax
        var ticks = ticks
        // This routine creates the Y axis values for a graph.
        //
        // Calculate Min amd Max graphical labels and graph
        // increments.  The number of ticks defaults to
        // 10 which is the SUGGESTED value.  Any tick value
        // entered is used as a suggested value which is
        // adjusted to be a 'pretty' value.
        //
        // Output will be an array of the Y axis values that
        // encompass the Y values.
        var result = [Int]()
        // If yMin and yMax are identical, then
        // adjust the yMin and yMax values to actually
        // make a graph. Also avoids division by zero errors.
        if yMin == yMax {
            yMin -= ticks   // some small value
            yMax += ticks   // some small value
        }
        // Determine Range
        let range = yMax - yMin
        // Adjust ticks if needed
        if ticks < 2 { ticks = 2 }
        else if ticks > 2 { ticks -= 2 }

        // Get raw step value
        let tempStep: CGFloat = CGFloat(range) / CGFloat(ticks)
        // Calculate pretty step value
        let mag = floor(log10(tempStep))
        let magPow = pow(10,mag)
        let magMsd = Int(tempStep / magPow + 0.5)
        let stepSize = magMsd * Int(magPow)

        // build Y label array.
        // Lower and upper bounds calculations
        let lb = stepSize * Int(yMin/stepSize)
        let ub = stepSize * Int(ceil(CGFloat(yMax)/CGFloat(stepSize)))
        // Build array
        var val = lb
        while true {
            result.append(val)
            val += stepSize
            if val > ub { break }
        }
        return result
    }

}

Answer 5

this works like a charm, if you want 10 steps + zero

//get proper scale for y
$maximoyi_temp= max($institucion); //get max value from data array
 for ($i=10; $i< $maximoyi_temp; $i=($i*10)) {   
    if (($divisor = ($maximoyi_temp / $i)) < 2) break; //get which divisor will give a number between 1-2    
 } 
 $factor_d = $maximoyi_temp / $i;
 $factor_d = ceil($factor_d); //round up number to 2
 $maximoyi = $factor_d * $i; //get new max value for y
 if ( ($maximoyi/ $maximoyi_temp) > 2) $maximoyi = $maximoyi /2; //check if max value is too big, then split by 2

Answer 6

Try this code. I've used it in a few charting scenarios and it works well. It's pretty fast too.

public static class AxisUtil
{
    public static float CalculateStepSize(float range, float targetSteps)
    {
        // calculate an initial guess at step size
        float tempStep = range/targetSteps;

        // get the magnitude of the step size
        float mag = (float)Math.Floor(Math.Log10(tempStep));
        float magPow = (float)Math.Pow(10, mag);

        // calculate most significant digit of the new step size
        float magMsd = (int)(tempStep/magPow + 0.5);

        // promote the MSD to either 1, 2, or 5
        if (magMsd > 5.0)
            magMsd = 10.0f;
        else if (magMsd > 2.0)
            magMsd = 5.0f;
        else if (magMsd > 1.0)
            magMsd = 2.0f;

        return magMsd*magPow;
    }
}