Generate Pie, Bar, Line Charts using Google Chart API
Reporting tools have became so pervasive today that a lot of applications around today’s IT world has these types of tools that reports a lot of complex data in a simple and understandable way. Pie charts, Bar graph, Line charts have became a standard way of representing data in a good and understandable way. There are lots of Reporting tools available that can be leverage to create such kind of charts. Google Chart API is one of such online tool that can be used to generate complex charts for visual data representation.

What is Google Chart API?

The Google Chart API is an extremely simple tool that lets you easily create a chart from some data and embed it in a webpage. You embed the data and formatting parameters in an HTTP request, and Google returns a PNG image of the chart. Many types of chart are supported, and by making the request into an image tag you can simply include the chart in a webpage. Google had created these API’s for their internal use to generate charts in applications like finance. But soon they realised these API’s will be of great use and hence they launched Google Chart API.

Supported Charts

Currently following are the charts that are being supported by Google Charts API.
  1. Line Chart
  2. Pie Chart
  3. Bar Chart
  4. Radar Chart
  5. Venn Diagrams
  6. Scatter Plots
  7. Sparklines
  8. Maps
  9. Google-o-meter
  10. QR Codes

How does it works?

Google Chart API works by sending a HTTP request using URL. All what we have to do is to create a URL that specifies all arguments and other information and send it using HTTP. Google Chart will return us the image of the Chart that we requested.

Live Examples

Following are few examples in each of the Chart types that you can generate using Google Chart APIs.

Pie Chart

Hello World Pie Chart. 
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p3&chd=t:60,40&chs=250x100&chl=Hello|World

Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
Two dimensional pie chart. 
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p&chd=s:Uf9a&chs=200x100&chl=January|February|March|April

Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
Concentric pie charts. 
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=pc&chd=s:Helo,Wrld&chs=200x100

Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Bar Charts

Horizontal bar chart, with stacked bars. 
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=bhs&chs=200x125&chd=s:ello&chco=4d89f9

Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
Vertical bar chart, with stacked bars. 
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=bvs&chs=200x125&chd=t:10,50,60,80,40|50,60,100,40,20&chco=4d89f9,c6d9fd&chbh=20&chds=0,160

Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
Horizontal bar chart, with grouped bars. 
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=bhg&chs=200x125&chd=s:el,or&chco=4d89f9,c6d9fd
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Line Charts

Chart of type LC. 
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=lc&chs=200x125&chd=t:40,60,60,45,47,75,70,72

Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
Line charts of type ls are also known as sparklines. 
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=200x125&cht=ls&chco=0077CC&chd=t:27,25,60,31,25,39,25,31,26,28,80,28,27,31,27,29,26,35,70,25

Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
For charts of type lxy, a pair of data sets is required for each line. 
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=lxy&chs=200x125&chd=t:10,20,40,80,90,95,99|20,30,40,50,60,70,80|-1|5,25,45,65,85&chco=3072F3,ff0000,00aaaa&chls=2,4,1&chm=s,FF0000,0,-1,5|s,0000ff,1,-1,5|s,00aa00,2,-1,5

Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Venn diagrams

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=v&chs=200x100&chd=t:100,80,60,30,25,20,10

Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Scatter plots

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=s&chd=t:12,87,75,41,23,96,68,71,34,9|98,60,27,34,56,79,58,74,18,76|84,23,69,81,47,94,60,93,64,54&chxt=x,y&chxl=0:|0|20|30|40|50|60|70|80|90|10|1:|0|25|50|75|100&chs=200x125
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Radar charts

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=r&chs=200x200&chd=t:10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=r&chs=200x200&chd=t:77,66,15,0,31,48,100,77|20,36,100,2,0,100&chco=FF0000,FF9900&chls=2.0,4.0,0.0|2.0,4.0,0.0&chxt=x&chxl=0:|0|45|90|135|180|225|270|315&chxr=0,0.0,360.0
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=rs&chs=200x200&chd=s:voJATd9v,MW9BA9&chco=FF0000,FF9900&chls=2.0,4.0,0.0|2.0,4.0,0.0&chxt=x&chxl=0:|0|45|90|135|180|225|270|315&chxr=0,0.0,360.0&chg=25.0,25.0,4.0,4.0&chm=B,FF000080,0,1.0,5.0|B,FF990080,1,1.0,5.0|h,0000FF,0,1.0,4.0|h,3366CC80,0,0.5,5.0|V,00FF0080,0,1.0,5.0|V,008000,0,5.5,5.0|v,00A000,0,6.5,4
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Maps

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=t&chs=440x220&chd=s:_&chtm=world

Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=t&chs=440x220&chd=t:0,100,50,32,60,40,43,12,14,54,98,17,70,76,18,29&chco=FFFFFF,FF0000,FFFF00,00FF00&chld=DZEGMGAOBWNGCFKECGCVSNDJTZGHMZZM&chtm=africa&chf=bg,s,EAF7FE
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

Google-o-meters

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=225x125&cht=gom&chd=t:70&chl=Hello

Code language: HTML, XML (xml)

View Comments

  • Can you make more examples with labels on the axis? I can't seem to figure it out. I want to do line charts and label the x & y axis.

  • Hi Sun,
    For adding labels to axis, you can use chxt and chxl parameters. For example to add labels to line chart following URL can be used.

    http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chxt=x,y,r,x
&chxl=0:|Jan|July|Jan|July|Jan|1:|0|50|100|2:|A|B|C|3:|2005|2006|2007
&cht=lc&chd=s:cEAELFJHHHKUju9uuXUc&chco=76A4FB&chls=2.0&chs=200x125


    Refer http://code.google.com/apis/chart/labels.html#axis_labels for more details.

  • Hi Mr.Think,
    Google Chart API will take input points less than or equal to 100. In your case you are trying to give values greater than 100 as you mention.
    I will suggest you to convert your values in percentage values % and than pass it in URL.
    For example if your input set is (50,90,120,150,80,95) than you can convert these values into %. Simplest way is to treat 150 as 100 and convert rest of the values accordingly.
    I know this sounds weird but it is pure math.. This is nt the only way to convert these values between 100 ranges. We have not considered Minimum value from the list. But this will work..

    Let me know if it works for you.

  • Viral,
    I'm trying to graph a line chart with at least 9 bars and a label for each bar (the label could also run over the bar). Can the x axis be extended to accomodate the width I require to display all the bars?
    Thanks for such a great tool!
    Neema

  • Please tell me if there is any command which could be run on command line so that the bar graph is displayed

  • How can we send array of values dynamically as parameters? Now you are passing hard coded values..? Looking forward for your response.

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Published by
Viral Patel
Tags: google google chart api google code reporting tool
16 years ago

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