JavaFX BarChart and StackedBarChart Tutorial with Examples

JavaFX BarChart
BarChart example
Horizontal BarChart
Custom BarChart
Manage animation when data changes
JavaFX StackedBarChart
BarChart and Events

1. JavaFX BarChart

JavaFX BarChart is used to draw out a bar chart, which is a two-dimensional one with 2 axis X and Y. In this chart, one axis denotes a group of interested objects, and the other denotes numeric data.

For example, the below data describes popularity of some programming languages in 2014 and 2015.

	2014	2015
Java	20.973%	26.983%
C#	4.429%	6.569%
PHP	2.792%	6.619%

You can use BarChart to draw the chart decribing the popularity of programming languages with the above-mentioned data. Let's see illustrative example below:

The X-axis expresses interested programming languages, the Y-axis is numeric data describing the market share of the languages. There are 2 series, one is data of 2014, the other is data of 2015.

2. BarChart example

BarChartDemo.java

package org.o7planning.javafx.barchart;

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.chart.BarChart;
import javafx.scene.chart.CategoryAxis;
import javafx.scene.chart.NumberAxis;
import javafx.scene.chart.XYChart;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class BarChartDemo extends Application {

   @Override
   public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception {

       CategoryAxis xAxis = new CategoryAxis();
       xAxis.setLabel("Programming Language");

       NumberAxis yAxis = new NumberAxis();
       yAxis.setLabel("Percent");

       // Create a BarChart
       BarChart<String, Number> barChart = new BarChart<String, Number>(xAxis, yAxis);

       // Series 1 - Data of 2014
       XYChart.Series<String, Number> dataSeries1 = new XYChart.Series<String, Number>();
       dataSeries1.setName("2014");

       dataSeries1.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("Java", 20.973));
       dataSeries1.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("C#", 4.429));
       dataSeries1.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("PHP", 2.792));

       // Series 2 - Data of 2015
       XYChart.Series<String, Number> dataSeries2 = new XYChart.Series<String, Number>();
       dataSeries2.setName("2015");

       dataSeries2.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("Java", 26.983));
       dataSeries2.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("C#", 6.569));
       dataSeries2.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("PHP", 6.619));

       // Add Series to BarChart.
       barChart.getData().add(dataSeries1);
       barChart.getData().add(dataSeries2);

       barChart.setTitle("Some Programming Languages");

       VBox vbox = new VBox(barChart);

       primaryStage.setTitle("JavaFX BarChart (o7planning.org)");
       Scene scene = new Scene(vbox, 400, 200);

       primaryStage.setScene(scene);
       primaryStage.setHeight(300);
       primaryStage.setWidth(400);

       primaryStage.show();
   }

   public static void main(String[] args) {
       Application.launch(args);
   }
}

3. Horizontal BarChart

By default, the Y-axis is often to describe numeric data, X-axis is to describe interested objects. In this case, BarChart is a vertical chart. However, you can also create a horizontal one. Let's see the illustrative example:

HorizontalBarChartDemo.java

package org.o7planning.javafx.barchart;

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.chart.BarChart;
import javafx.scene.chart.CategoryAxis;
import javafx.scene.chart.NumberAxis;
import javafx.scene.chart.XYChart;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class HorizontalBarChartDemo extends Application {

    @Override
    public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception {

        CategoryAxis xAxis = new CategoryAxis();
        xAxis.setLabel("Programming Language");

        NumberAxis yAxis = new NumberAxis();
         
        yAxis.setLabel("Percent");

        // Create a BarChart
        BarChart<Number, String> barChart = new BarChart<Number, String>(yAxis, xAxis);

        // Series 1 - Data of 2014
        XYChart.Series<Number, String> dataSeries1 = new XYChart.Series<Number, String>();
        dataSeries1.setName("2014");

        dataSeries1.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<Number, String>(20.973, "Java"));
        dataSeries1.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<Number, String>(4.429, "C#"));
        dataSeries1.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<Number, String>(2.792, "PHP"));

        // Series 2 - Data of 2015
        XYChart.Series<Number, String> dataSeries2 = new XYChart.Series<Number, String>();
        dataSeries2.setName("2015");

        dataSeries2.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<Number, String>(26.983, "Java"));
        dataSeries2.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<Number, String>(6.569, "C#"));
        dataSeries2.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<Number, String>(6.619, "PHP"));

        // Add Series to BarChart.
        barChart.getData().add(dataSeries1);
        barChart.getData().add(dataSeries2);

        barChart.setTitle("Some Programming Languages");

        VBox vbox = new VBox(barChart);

        primaryStage.setTitle("JavaFX BarChart (o7planning.org)");
        Scene scene = new Scene(vbox, 400, 200);

        primaryStage.setScene(scene);
        primaryStage.setHeight(300);
        primaryStage.setWidth(400);

        primaryStage.show();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Application.launch(args);
    }
}

4. Custom BarChart

// Set show Tick Marks
xAxis.setTickMarkVisible(true);

// Rotate the label of Tick Marks 90 degrees
xAxis.setTickLabelRotation(90);

// Set color for lable of Tick marks
xAxis.setTickLabelFill(Color.RED);

// Set Font
xAxis.setTickLabelFont( new Font("Arial", 15));

// Set legend position.
barChart.setLegendSide(Side.LEFT);

5. Manage animation when data changes

When data changes, you could update to re-draw the chart. JavaFX allows you to create animated effects in order to re-draw the chart from new data.

// Changing random data after every 1 second.
Timeline timeline = new Timeline();
timeline.getKeyFrames().add(new KeyFrame(Duration.millis(1000), new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {
   @Override
   public void handle(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
       for (XYChart.Series<String, Number> series : barChart.getData()) {
           for (XYChart.Data<String, Number> data : series.getData()) {
               Number yValue = data.getYValue();
               Number randomValue = yValue.doubleValue() * (0.5 + Math.random());
               data.setYValue(randomValue);
           }
       }
   }
}));
// Repeat indefinitely until stop() method is called.
timeline.setCycleCount(Animation.INDEFINITE);
timeline.setAutoReverse(true);
timeline.play();

View full example:

AnimationBarChartDemo.java

package org.o7planning.javafx.barchart;

import javafx.animation.Animation;
import javafx.animation.KeyFrame;
import javafx.animation.Timeline;
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.event.ActionEvent;
import javafx.event.EventHandler;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.chart.BarChart;
import javafx.scene.chart.CategoryAxis;
import javafx.scene.chart.NumberAxis;
import javafx.scene.chart.XYChart;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.util.Duration;

public class AnimationBarChartDemo extends Application {

    @Override
    public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception {

        CategoryAxis xAxis = new CategoryAxis();
        xAxis.setLabel("Programming Language");

        NumberAxis yAxis = new NumberAxis();
        yAxis.setLabel("Percent");

        // Create a BarChart
        BarChart<String, Number> barChart = new BarChart<String, Number>(xAxis, yAxis);

        // Series 1 - Data of 2014
        XYChart.Series<String, Number> dataSeries1 = new XYChart.Series<String, Number>();
        dataSeries1.setName("2014");

        dataSeries1.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("Java", 20.973));
        dataSeries1.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("C#", 4.429));
        dataSeries1.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("PHP", 2.792));

        // Series 2 - Data of 2015
        XYChart.Series<String, Number> dataSeries2 = new XYChart.Series<String, Number>();
        dataSeries2.setName("2015");

        dataSeries2.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("Java", 26.983));
        dataSeries2.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("C#", 6.569));
        dataSeries2.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("PHP", 6.619));

        // Add Series to BarChart.
        barChart.getData().add(dataSeries1);
        barChart.getData().add(dataSeries2);

        barChart.setTitle("Some Programming Languages");

        // Changing random data after every 1 second.
        Timeline timeline = new Timeline();
        timeline.getKeyFrames().add(new KeyFrame(Duration.millis(1000), new EventHandler<ActionEvent>() {
            @Override
            public void handle(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
                for (XYChart.Series<String, Number> series : barChart.getData()) {
                    for (XYChart.Data<String, Number> data : series.getData()) {
                        Number yValue = data.getYValue();
                        Number randomValue = yValue.doubleValue() * (0.5 + Math.random());
                        data.setYValue(randomValue);
                    }
                }
            }
        }));
        // Repeat indefinitely until stop() method is called.
        timeline.setCycleCount(Animation.INDEFINITE);
        timeline.setAutoReverse(true);
        timeline.play();

        VBox vbox = new VBox(barChart);

        primaryStage.setTitle("JavaFX BarChart (o7planning.org)");
        Scene scene = new Scene(vbox, 400, 200);

        primaryStage.setScene(scene);
        primaryStage.setHeight(300);
        primaryStage.setWidth(400);

        primaryStage.show();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Application.launch(args);
    }
}

6. JavaFX StackedBarChart

There are no differences between the creation of BarChart and StackedBarChart. The only difference is the way to display the data. For StackedBarChart, Series will be stacked up together.

StackedBarChartDemo.java

package org.o7planning.javafx.stackedbarchart;

import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.chart.CategoryAxis;
import javafx.scene.chart.NumberAxis;
import javafx.scene.chart.StackedBarChart;
import javafx.scene.chart.XYChart;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class StackedBarChartDemo extends Application {

    @Override
    public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception {

        CategoryAxis xAxis = new CategoryAxis();
        xAxis.setLabel("Programming Language");

        NumberAxis yAxis = new NumberAxis();
        yAxis.setLabel("Percent");

        // Create a StackedBarChart
        StackedBarChart<String, Number> barChart = new StackedBarChart<String, Number>(xAxis, yAxis);

        // Series 1 - Data of 2014
        XYChart.Series<String, Number> dataSeries1 = new XYChart.Series<String, Number>();
        dataSeries1.setName("2014");

        dataSeries1.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("Java", 20.973));
        dataSeries1.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("C#", 4.429));
        dataSeries1.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("PHP", 2.792));

        // Series 2 - Data of 2015
        XYChart.Series<String, Number> dataSeries2 = new XYChart.Series<String, Number>();
        dataSeries2.setName("2015");

        dataSeries2.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("Java", 26.983));
        dataSeries2.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("C#", 6.569));
        dataSeries2.getData().add(new XYChart.Data<String, Number>("PHP", 6.619));

        // Add Series to StackedBarChart.
        barChart.getData().add(dataSeries1);
        barChart.getData().add(dataSeries2);
       
        barChart.setTitle("Some Programming Languages");

        VBox vbox = new VBox(barChart);

        primaryStage.setTitle("JavaFX StackedBarChart (o7planning.org)");
        Scene scene = new Scene(vbox, 400, 200);

        primaryStage.setScene(scene);
        primaryStage.setHeight(300);
        primaryStage.setWidth(400);

        primaryStage.show();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Application.launch(args);
    }
}

7. BarChart and Events

You can handle the events with charts including BarChart and StackedBarChart. There are some examples of handling the event with PieChart, and they can be applied to BarChart, StackedBarChart, you can get further reference at:

JavaFX PieChart