Microsoft Excel features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications. I thought this was one of the easier tools to use which is why I started with it. I opened the csv file and added a scatterplot to input the data. I had to add multiple sets of data to group the different manufacturers. That was the only major problem I had with this tool. I have used Excel in the past and plan on using it in the future to create simple graphs from datasets.
Tableau Software is an American interactive data visualization software company. The tool was extremely easy to use and user friendly. I think I enjoyed using this tool the most. I was able to drag the values I wanted to display from a list and place them to display the plot. It automatically generated the legends on the side but I was unable to figure out how to change the scale of the weight legend as it starts at 1,649 and ends 4,906 instead of even numbers. I would definetly use this tool in the future.
D3.js is a JavaScript library for producing dynamic, interactive data visualizations in web browsers. I had a lot of trouble with trying to figure out where to start. I eventually found some resources to help me. I also had problems with centering the labels on the axes and it took me a while to figure out what values needed to change. I decided to add a legend for color and manipulated coordinates to get it where I wanted on the plot. This was not my favorite tool but we will have to use it in class so I will definitely be using it in the future. I added the file to Github pages so this link also shows the plot: https://vygrasso.github.io/02-DataVis-5Ways/d3/index
R is a language primarily focused on statistical computing.
ggplot2 is a popular library for charting in R.
To visualized the cars dataset, I made use of ggplot2's geom_point() layer, with aesthetics functions for the color and size. This was my first time coding in R so I googled a couple of resources to help with the syntax. I had trouble reading in the csv file so I changed the path to the link from GitHub. I thought it was great that the tool automatically created the legends and assigned colors for the manufacturers. However, I wanted specific colors assigned to the manufacturers so I looked up the scale_color_manual function. This tool was pretty easy to use once I understood the syntax and realized I could use RStudio to run the code. I would use this tool in the future.
Matplotlib is a plotting library for the Python programming language. I had the most trouble assigning colors to the manufacturers and had to try different techniques and made different functions until I found a resource that explained dictionaries and map. As this was my first time coding in Python, there was a learning curve. I also found a resource that helped generate a legend for size of the dots. I would probably use this tool again.
- d3 Added a remove null function to check for any null values in mpg or weight columns. I also added a legend for the colors of manufacturers.
- ggplot Used manual color to adjust what colors were assigned to each manufacturer.
- matplotlib Added a legend for weight to show what the size of the dots represented.
- All: I chose different colors for each manufacturer and kept it consistent across all 5 plots.
http://learnjsdata.com/read_data.html https://github.com/d3/d3-fetch/blob/v2.0.0/README.md#csv https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15988455/how-can-i-change-the-radius-and-opacity-of-a-circle-in-d3 https://www.d3-graph-gallery.com/graph/scatter_basic.html https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11189284/d3-axis-labeling https://www.d3-graph-gallery.com/graph/custom_legend.html
http://monashbioinformaticsplatform.github.io/2015-11-30-intro-r/ggplot.html https://rpubs.com/lokraj/github_csv http://www.sthda.com/english/wiki/ggplot2-scatter-plots-quick-start-guide-r-software-and-data-visualization http://www.sthda.com/english/wiki/ggplot2-colors-how-to-change-colors-automatically-and-manually
https://stackabuse.com/matplotlib-scatterplot-tutorial-and-examples/ https://www.w3schools.com/python/pandas_plotting.asp https://www.w3schools.com/python/python_functions.asp https://matplotlib.org/3.1.1/gallery/lines_bars_and_markers/scatter_with_legend.html#sphx-glr-gallery-lines-bars-and-markers-scatter-with-legend-py https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16247761/how-to-equate-a-string-in-python-to-a-number https://kanoki.org/2019/04/06/pandas-map-dictionary-values-with-dataframe-columns/