D3.js - Data visualization

D3.js is a JavaScript library

D3.js (also known as D3, short for Data-Driven Documents) is a JavaScript library for producing dynamic, interactive data visualizations in web browsers. It makes use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), HTML5, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) standards. It is the successor to the earlier Protovis framework. Its development was noted in 2011, as version 2.0.0 was released in August 2011

D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS. D3’s emphasis on web standards gives you the full capabilities of modern browsers without tying yourself to a proprietary framework, combining powerful visualization components and a data-driven approach to DOM manipulation.

Link: https://d3js.org/

D3 allows you to bind arbitrary data to a Document Object Model (DOM), and then apply data-driven transformations to the document. For example, you can use D3 to generate an HTML table from an array of numbers. Or, use the same data to create an interactive SVG bar chart with smooth transitions and interaction.

D3 is not a monolithic framework that seeks to provide every conceivable feature. Instead, D3 solves the crux of the problem: efficient manipulation of documents based on data. This avoids proprietary representation and affords extraordinary flexibility, exposing the full capabilities of web standards such as HTML, SVG, and CSS. With minimal overhead, D3 is extremely fast, supporting large datasets and dynamic behaviors for interaction and animation. D3’s functional style allows code reuse through a diverse collection of official and community-developed modules.

Data visualization is the presentation of data in a pictorial or graphical format. The primary goal of data visualization is to communicate information clearly and efficiently via statistical graphics, plots and information graphics.

Data visualization helps us to communicate our insights quickly and effectively. Any type of data, which is represented by a visualization allows users to compare the data, generate analytic reports, understand patterns and thus helps them to take the decision. Data visualizations can be interactive, so that users analyze specific data in the chart. Well, Data visualizations can be developed and integrated in regular websites and even mobile applications using different JavaScript frameworks.

D3.js Benefits

D3.js is an open source project and works without any plugin. It requires very less code and comes up with the following benefits −

1. Great data visualization.
2. It is modular. You can download a small piece of D3.js, which you want to use. No need to load the whole library every time.
3. Easy to build a charting component.
4. DOM manipulation.

D3.js Features

D3.js is one of the best data visualization framework and it can be used to generate simple as well as complex visualizations along with user interaction and transition effects. Some of its salient features are listed below −

1. Extremely flexible.
2. Easy to use and fast.
3. Supports large datasets.
4. Declarative programming.
5. Code re-usability.
6. Has wide variety of curve generating functions.
7. Associates data to an element or group of elements in the HTML page.