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How to plot a Line Graph in Java using dataset from a text file?

I have written a Java GUI program which opens a text file and reads the data in the left panel. Now I want to display a graph of the data read from the same file on the right panel.

I have used JFileChooser to open files and read the data and display them on a text area. I want the data read from the file to be displayed using a two dimensional X-Y graph. The axis of the graph should be labeled using the label information specified in the data file. The values on the X-axis should begin from the x-axis start value specified, with intervals which increment at a rate determined by the x-axis interval value. The values on the Y-axis will need to be determined from the data itself. Each point plotted on the graph should be joined using a single line.

I have used several methods but none worked. I have tried reading each line on the text file as arrays and use the arrays as the dataset, but it didn't work as well. Please help me plot a graph from the data on the text file. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

P.S The graph should be plotted using AWT/Swing libraries only.

The data on the file is as follows:

Title: Effect of Age on Ability
Xlabel: Age
Ylabel: Ability
start: 0
interval: 15
0, 3, 4.2, 7, 5.1, 10, 3.2

Following are my code which I have written so far:

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.GridLayout;
import java.awt.List;
import java.awt.TextArea;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import java.awt.event.KeyListener;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.math.BigDecimal;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Scanner;

import javax.swing.BorderFactory;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JFileChooser;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.JMenu;
import javax.swing.JMenuBar;
import javax.swing.JMenuItem;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JSplitPane;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.event.MenuEvent;
import javax.swing.event.MenuListener;

import org.jfree.chart.ChartFactory;
import org.jfree.chart.ChartPanel;
import org.jfree.chart.JFreeChart;
import org.jfree.chart.plot.PlotOrientation;
import org.jfree.data.general.DefaultPieDataset;
import org.jfree.data.xy.XYSeries;
import org.jfree.data.xy.XYSeriesCollection;

@SuppressWarnings("serial")
public class GUI extends JFrame {

    private String[] readLines = new String[6];

    public GUI() {
        // Setting Title, size and layout
        setTitle("Data Visualiser");
        setSize(950, 1000);
        setLayout(new BorderLayout());

        // Creates a menubar for a JFrame
        final JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();

        // Add the menubar to the frame
        setJMenuBar(menuBar);

        // Define and add two drop down menu to the menubar, "file" and "help"
        JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");
        JMenu helpMenu = new JMenu("Help");
        menuBar.add(fileMenu);
        menuBar.add(helpMenu);

        // adding menu items and icons to the "file" drop down menu,
        final JMenuItem openAction = new JMenuItem("Open", new ImageIcon("images/Open-icon.png"));

        final JMenuItem saveAction = new JMenuItem("Save", new ImageIcon("images/save-file.png"));

        final JMenuItem exitAction = new JMenuItem("Exit", new ImageIcon("images/exit-icon.png"));

        final JMenuItem aboutAction = new JMenuItem("About", new ImageIcon("images/about-us.png"));

        //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        // Create a text area.
        final JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea("");
        textArea.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 16));
        textArea.setLineWrap(true);
        textArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
        textArea.setEditable(false);
        JScrollPane textScrollPane = new JScrollPane(textArea);
        // textArea.add(textScrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER); //add the
        // JScrollPane to the panel

        // Scrollbars
        textScrollPane.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);
        textScrollPane.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);

        textScrollPane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(350, 550));
        textScrollPane.setBorder(
            BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Textual Representation"),
                BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5)));

        // Create an graphics pane.
        JPanel graphicsArea = new JPanel();
        //graphicsArea.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 16));
        JScrollPane graphicsScrollPane = new JScrollPane(graphicsArea);

        // Scrollbars
        graphicsScrollPane.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);
        graphicsScrollPane.setHorizontalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.HORIZONTAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);

        graphicsScrollPane.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(550, 550));
        graphicsScrollPane.setBorder(
            BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Graphical Representation"),
                BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5)));

        // Put the graphics pane and the text pane in a split pane.
        JSplitPane splitPane = new JSplitPane(JSplitPane.HORIZONTAL_SPLIT, textScrollPane, graphicsScrollPane);
        splitPane.setOneTouchExpandable(true);
        splitPane.setResizeWeight(0.5);

        JPanel rightPane = new JPanel(new GridLayout(1, 0));
        rightPane.add(splitPane);

        // Put everything together.
        JPanel leftPane = new JPanel(new BorderLayout());
        add(rightPane, BorderLayout.LINE_END);

        ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
        // file menu shortcut
        fileMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);

        fileMenu.add(openAction);
        // openAction.addActionListener(this);
        openAction.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
                if (arg0.getSource().equals(openAction)) {

                    // using JFileChooser to open the text file
                    JFileChooser fileChooser = new JFileChooser();

                    if (fileChooser.showOpenDialog(fileChooser) == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
                        // fileChooser.setCurrentDirectory(new
                        // File(System.getProperty("user.home"))); // setting
                        // current
                        // directory
                        File file = fileChooser.getSelectedFile();
                        BufferedReader br = null;

                        try {
                            // FileReader fr = new FileReader(file);
                            Scanner f = new Scanner(file);
                            for (int i = 0; i < 6; i++) {
                                readLines[i] = f.nextLine();
                                textArea.setText(textArea.getText() + readLines[i] + "\n");
                                String array[] = readLines[i].split(" ");

                            }
                        } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
                            JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(new JFrame(), "File not found!", "ERROR!",
                                JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE); // error message
                            // if file not
                            // found
                        } catch (NullPointerException e) {
                            // System.out.println(e.getLocalizedMessage());
                        } finally {
                            if (br != null) {
                                try {
                                    br.close();
                                } catch (IOException e) {
                                    e.printStackTrace();
                                }
                            }
                        }

                    }
                }
            }
        });

        fileMenu.add(saveAction);
        fileMenu.add(exitAction);

        // exit button shortcut
        exitAction.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_X);
        exitAction.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            // setting up exit button
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
                if (arg0.getSource().equals(exitAction)) {
                    System.exit(0);
                }
            }
        });

        fileMenu.addSeparator();

        helpMenu.addSeparator();
        helpMenu.add(aboutAction);

        // about button shortcut
        aboutAction.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_A);
        aboutAction.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            // clicking on about button opens up a dialog box which contain
            // information about the program
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
                JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(menuBar.getComponent(0),
                    "This program is based on the development of a data visualization tool. \n"
                    + "The basic concept is to produce a piece of software which reads in raw textual data, \n"
                    + "analyses that data, then presents it graphically to the user.",
                    "About Us", JOptionPane.PLAIN_MESSAGE);
            }
        });

    }
}
Solution

  • Starting from your example, note the following:

    • Use a ChartPanel for your graphicsArea; then, your openAction() can simply invoke setChart().

    • Parse the chosen file in creatChart(); the title and data lines are shown, but the remaining attributes are left as an exercise.

    • Consider using Properties for your file format;

    • For greater flexibility, use Action as shown here.

    • To change the chart panel's default size, override getPreferredSize() as shown here.

    • Swing GUI objects should be constructed and manipulated only on the event dispatch thread.

    P.S. The graph should be plotted using AWT/Swing libraries only.

    For a single chart, replace ChartPanel with JPanel and override paintComponent() to perform the rendering. You can transform coordinates using the approach is outlined here or here.

    image

    import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.KeyEvent;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.swing.BorderFactory;
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JFileChooser;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JMenu;
import javax.swing.JMenuBar;
import javax.swing.JMenuItem;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JSplitPane;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import org.jfree.chart.ChartFactory;
import org.jfree.chart.ChartPanel;
import org.jfree.chart.JFreeChart;
import org.jfree.data.xy.XYSeries;
import org.jfree.data.xy.XYSeriesCollection;

//* @see https://stackoverflow.com/a/36764715/230513 */
public class GUI extends JFrame {

    public GUI() {
        super("Data Visualiser");
        setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        final JMenuBar menuBar = new JMenuBar();
        setJMenuBar(menuBar);
        JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");
        JMenu helpMenu = new JMenu("Help");
        menuBar.add(fileMenu);
        menuBar.add(helpMenu);

        final JMenuItem openAction = new JMenuItem("Open", new ImageIcon("images/Open-icon.png"));
        final JMenuItem saveAction = new JMenuItem("Save", new ImageIcon("images/save-file.png"));
        final JMenuItem exitAction = new JMenuItem("Exit", new ImageIcon("images/exit-icon.png"));
        final JMenuItem aboutAction = new JMenuItem("About", new ImageIcon("images/about-us.png"));

        final JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea(8, 16);
        textArea.setFont(new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 16));
        textArea.setLineWrap(true);
        textArea.setWrapStyleWord(true);
        textArea.setEditable(false);
        JScrollPane textScrollPane = new JScrollPane(textArea);
        textScrollPane.setBorder(BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(
            BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Textual Representation"),
            BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5)));

        ChartPanel graphicsArea = new ChartPanel(null);
        graphicsArea.setBorder(BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(
            BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Graphical Representation"),
            BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5)));

        JSplitPane splitPane = new JSplitPane(JSplitPane.HORIZONTAL_SPLIT, textScrollPane, graphicsArea);
        splitPane.setOneTouchExpandable(true);
        splitPane.setResizeWeight(0.5);
        add(splitPane, BorderLayout.LINE_END);

        fileMenu.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_F);
        fileMenu.add(openAction);
        openAction.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
                if (arg0.getSource().equals(openAction)) {
                    JFileChooser fileChooser = new JFileChooser(new File("."));
                    if (fileChooser.showOpenDialog(fileChooser) == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
                        File file = fileChooser.getSelectedFile();
                        graphicsArea.setChart(creatChart(file));
                    }
                }
            }

            private JFreeChart creatChart(File file) {
                String title = null;
                String xAxisLabel = null;
                String yAxisLabel = null;
                BufferedReader in = null;
                int start = 0;
                int interval = 0;
                String data = null;
                String line = null;
                try {
                    in = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file));
                    while ((line = in.readLine()) != null) {
                        textArea.append(line + "\n");
                        if (line.startsWith("Title")) {
                            title = line.split(":")[1].trim();
                        }
                        // parse other lines here
                        if (!line.contains(":")) {
                            data = line;
                        }
                    }
                } catch (IOException ex) {
                    ex.printStackTrace(System.err);
                }
                XYSeries dataset = new XYSeries(file.getName());
                for (String s : data.split(",")) {
                    dataset.add(start, Double.valueOf(s));
                    start += interval;
                }
                return ChartFactory.createXYLineChart(title,
                    xAxisLabel, yAxisLabel, new XYSeriesCollection(dataset));
            }
        });
        fileMenu.add(saveAction);
        fileMenu.add(exitAction);
        exitAction.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_X);
        exitAction.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {

            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
                if (arg0.getSource().equals(exitAction)) {
                    System.exit(0);
                }
            }
        });
        fileMenu.addSeparator();
        helpMenu.addSeparator();
        helpMenu.add(aboutAction);
        aboutAction.setMnemonic(KeyEvent.VK_A);
        aboutAction.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
            @Override
            public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0) {
                JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,
                    "Visualization tool.",
                    "About Us", JOptionPane.PLAIN_MESSAGE);
            }
        });
        pack();
        setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(() -> {
            new GUI();
        });
    }
}