D3 for the Impatient

If you’re in a hurry to learn D3.js, the leading JavaScript library for web-based graphics and visualization, this book is for you. Written for technically savvy readers with a background in programming or data science, the book moves quickly, emphasizing unifying concepts and patterns. Anticipating common difficulties, author Philipp K. Janert teaches you how to apply D3 to your own problems.

Assuming only a general programming background, but no previous experience with contemporary web development, this book explains supporting technologies such as SVG, HTML5, CSS, and the DOM as needed, making it a convenient one-stop resource for a technical audience.

• Understand D3 selections, the library’s fundamental organizing principle
• Learn how to create data-driven documents with data binding
• Create animated graphs and interactive user interfaces
• Draw figures with curves, shapes, and colors
• Use the built-in facilities for heatmaps, tree graphs, and networks
• Simplify your work by writing your own reusable components

This book is intended for programmers and scientists who want to add D3 to their toolbox. I assume that you are reasonably proficient as a programmer and comfortable working with data and graphics. At the same time, I don’t expect that you have more than a cursory knowledge of contemporary professional web development.

• Knowledge of at least one or two programming languages (but not necessarily JavaScript), and the confidence to pick up the syntax of a new language from its language reference.
• Familiarity with contemporary programming concepts; that is, not just loops, conditionals, and common data structures, but also closures and higher-order functions.
• Basic understanding of XML and the hierarchical structure it imposes on documents. I expect that you know of the DOM and how it treats the elements of a web page as nodes in a tree.
• Exposure to simple HTML and CSS (you should be able to recognize and use <body> and <p> tags, and so on), as well as some familiarity with CSS syntax and mechanisms.

About the Author

Philipp K. Janert is the author of “Data Analysis with Open Source Tools” (O’Reilly, 2010) and “Feedback Control for Computer Systems” (O’Reilly, 2013) as well as “Gnuplot in Action” (first and second edition, Manning, 2009 and 2015). He has worked as a programmer and scientist, in small startups and large corporations. He holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics.