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Parcoords

Overview

The parcoords trace type is used to create parallel coordinates plots, which are useful for visualizing multi-dimensional numerical data. In parallel coordinates plots, each variable is represented as a vertical axis, and each data point is a line connecting its values across the different axes.

You can customize the axis scaling, color mapping, and line properties to represent your data effectively.

Common Uses

  • Multivariate Data Analysis: Visualizing relationships between multiple variables.
  • Data Exploration: Exploring patterns and outliers in high-dimensional datasets.
  • Decision Making: Identifying optimal points or anomalies in multi-variable data.

Check out the Attributes for the full set of configuration options

Examples

Common Configurations

Here's a simple parcoords plot visualizing three numerical variables:

You can copy this code below to create this chart in your project:

models:
  - name: parcoords-data
    args:
      - echo
      - |
        variable_1,variable_2,variable_3
        1,4,7
        2,5,8
        3,6,9
traces:
  - name: Simple Parcoords Plot
    model: ${ref(parcoords-data)}
    props:
      type: parcoords
      dimensions:
        - label: "Variable 1"
          values: ?{variable_1}
        - label: "Variable 2"
          values: ?{variable_2}
        - label: "Variable 3"
          values: ?{variable_3}
      line:
        color: ?{variable_3}
        colorscale: "Viridis"
charts:
  - name: Simple Parcoords Chart
    traces:
      - ${ref(Simple Parcoords Plot)}
    layout:
      title:
        text: Simple Parcoords Plot<br><sub>Parallel Coordinates with Three Variables</sub>

This example demonstrates a parcoords plot with custom axis ranges, allowing you to focus on specific data ranges:

Here's the code:

models:
  - name: parcoords-data-ranges
    args:
      - echo
      - |
        variable_1,variable_2,variable_3
        5,10,15
        10,20,25
        15,30,35
traces:
  - name: Parcoords Plot with Custom Ranges
    model: ${ref(parcoords-data-ranges)}
    props:
      type: parcoords
      dimensions:
        - label: "Variable 1"
          values: ?{variable_1}
          range: [5, 15]
        - label: "Variable 2"
          values: ?{variable_2}
          range: [10, 30]
        - label: "Variable 3"
          values: ?{variable_3}
          range: [15, 35]
      line:
        color: ?{variable_3}
        colorscale: "Blues"
charts:
  - name: Parcoords Chart with Custom Ranges
    traces:
      - ${ref(Parcoords Plot with Custom Ranges)}
    layout:
      title:
        text: Parcoords Plot with Custom Ranges<br><sub>Custom Ranges for Each Variable</sub>

Here's a parcoords plot with a custom colorscale for the lines, highlighting the variations across the third variable:

Here's the code:

models:
  - name: parcoords-data-colorscale
    args:
      - echo
      - |
        variable_1,variable_2,variable_3
        1,2,3
        2,3,4
        3,4,5
traces:
  - name: Parcoords Plot with Custom Colorscale
    model: ${ref(parcoords-data-colorscale)}
    props:
      type: parcoords
      dimensions:
        - label: "Variable 1"
          values: ?{variable_1}
        - label: "Variable 2"
          values: ?{variable_2}
        - label: "Variable 3"
          values: ?{variable_3}
      line:
        color: ?{variable_3}
        colorscale: "Jet"
charts:
  - name: Parcoords Chart with Custom Colorscale
    traces:
      - ${ref(Parcoords Plot with Custom Colorscale)}
    layout:
      title:
        text: Parcoords Plot with Custom Colorscale<br><sub>Custom Colors for Line Based on Variable 3</sub>

A schema to validate plotly trace properties

Attributes

These attributes apply to traces where trace.props.type is set to parcoords. You would configure these attributes on the trace with the trace.props object. 

customdata: array
customdatasrc: 'string' #(1)!
dimensions: array
domain:
  column: integer
  row: integer
  x: array
  y: array
ids: array
idssrc: 'string' #(2)!
labelangle: number
labelfont:
  color: any
  family: 'string' #(3)!
  lineposition: any
  shadow: 'string' #(4)!
  size: number
  style: any
  textcase: any
  variant: any
  weight: integer
labelside: any
legend: string
legendgrouptitle:
  font:
    color: any
    family: 'string' #(5)!
    lineposition: any
    shadow: 'string' #(6)!
    size: number
    style: any
    textcase: any
    variant: any
    weight: integer
  text: 'string' #(7)!
legendrank: number
legendwidth: number
line:
  autocolorscale: boolean
  cauto: boolean
  cmax: number
  cmid: number
  cmin: number
  color: array
  coloraxis: string
  colorbar:
    bgcolor: any
    bordercolor: any
    borderwidth: number
    exponentformat: any
    len: number
    lenmode: any
    minexponent: number
    nticks: integer
    orientation: any
    outlinecolor: any
    outlinewidth: number
    separatethousands: boolean
    showexponent: any
    showticklabels: boolean
    showtickprefix: any
    showticksuffix: any
    thickness: number
    thicknessmode: any
    tickangle: number
    tickcolor: any
    tickfont:
      color: any
      family: 'string' #(8)!
      lineposition: any
      shadow: 'string' #(9)!
      size: number
      style: any
      textcase: any
      variant: any
      weight: integer
    tickformat: 'string' #(10)!
    tickformatstops: array
    ticklabeloverflow: any
    ticklabelposition: any
    ticklabelstep: integer
    ticklen: number
    tickmode: any
    tickprefix: 'string' #(11)!
    ticks: any
    ticksuffix: 'string' #(12)!
    ticktext: array
    ticktextsrc: 'string' #(13)!
    tickvals: array
    tickvalssrc: 'string' #(14)!
    tickwidth: number
    title:
      font:
        color: any
        family: 'string' #(15)!
        lineposition: any
        shadow: 'string' #(16)!
        size: number
        style: any
        textcase: any
        variant: any
        weight: integer
      side: any
      text: 'string' #(17)!
    x: number
    xanchor: any
    xpad: number
    xref: any
    y: number
    yanchor: any
    ypad: number
    yref: any
  colorscale: any
  colorsrc: 'string' #(18)!
  reversescale: boolean
  showscale: boolean
metasrc: 'string' #(19)!
name: 'string' #(20)!
rangefont:
  color: any
  family: 'string' #(21)!
  lineposition: any
  shadow: 'string' #(22)!
  size: number
  style: any
  textcase: any
  variant: any
  weight: integer
stream:
  maxpoints: number
  token: 'string' #(23)!
tickfont:
  color: any
  family: 'string' #(24)!
  lineposition: any
  shadow: 'string' #(25)!
  size: number
  style: any
  textcase: any
  variant: any
  weight: integer
type: parcoords
uid: 'string' #(26)!
unselected:
  line:
    color: any
    opacity: number
visible: any
  1. Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for customdata.
  2. Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for ids.
  3. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser can only apply a font if it is available on the system where it runs. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the order in which to apply fonts if they aren't available.
  4. Sets the shape and color of the shadow behind text. auto places minimal shadow and applies contrast text font color. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-shadow for additional options.
  5. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser can only apply a font if it is available on the system where it runs. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the order in which to apply fonts if they aren't available.
  6. Sets the shape and color of the shadow behind text. auto places minimal shadow and applies contrast text font color. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-shadow for additional options.
  7. Sets the title of the legend group.
  8. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser can only apply a font if it is available on the system where it runs. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the order in which to apply fonts if they aren't available.
  9. Sets the shape and color of the shadow behind text. auto places minimal shadow and applies contrast text font color. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-shadow for additional options.
  10. Sets the tick label formatting rule using d3 formatting mini-languages which are very similar to those in Python. For numbers, see: https://github.com/d3/d3-format/tree/v1.4.5#d3-format. And for dates see: https://github.com/d3/d3-time-format/tree/v2.2.3#locale_format. We add two items to d3's date formatter: %h for half of the year as a decimal number as well as %{n}f for fractional seconds with n digits. For example, 2016-10-13 09:15:23.456 with tickformat %H~%M~%S.%2f would display 09~15~23.46
  11. Sets a tick label prefix.
  12. Sets a tick label suffix.
  13. Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for ticktext.
  14. Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for tickvals.
  15. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser can only apply a font if it is available on the system where it runs. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the order in which to apply fonts if they aren't available.
  16. Sets the shape and color of the shadow behind text. auto places minimal shadow and applies contrast text font color. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-shadow for additional options.
  17. Sets the title of the color bar.
  18. Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for color.
  19. Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for meta.
  20. Sets the trace name. The trace name appears as the legend item and on hover.
  21. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser can only apply a font if it is available on the system where it runs. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the order in which to apply fonts if they aren't available.
  22. Sets the shape and color of the shadow behind text. auto places minimal shadow and applies contrast text font color. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-shadow for additional options.
  23. The stream id number links a data trace on a plot with a stream. See https://chart-studio.plotly.com/settings for more details.
  24. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser can only apply a font if it is available on the system where it runs. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the order in which to apply fonts if they aren't available.
  25. Sets the shape and color of the shadow behind text. auto places minimal shadow and applies contrast text font color. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-shadow for additional options.
  26. Assign an id to this trace, Use this to provide object constancy between traces during animations and transitions.