javascript - Time graphs chart.js

Question

I'm learning how to use chart.js and I want a graph that displays random values in different hours of the day (x axis) with format "h?h:mm".

In the x axis I want a fixed step of one hour, starting at 12 AM (0:00) and ending at 8 AM (8:00).

And the data, for example (x = 4:45, y = 67) in te corresponding x tick (3/4 between 4:00 and 5:00)

I tried the following:

var cfg = {
  type: 'line',
  data: {
    labels: ['00:00', '01:35', '02:20', '03:05', '04:07', '04:57', '05:25', '06:08', '07:10'],
    datasets: [{
      data: [
        randomScalingFactor(18, 45),
        randomScalingFactor(18, 45),
        randomScalingFactor(18, 45),
        randomScalingFactor(18, 45),
        randomScalingFactor(18, 45),
        randomScalingFactor(18, 45),
        randomScalingFactor(18, 45),
        randomScalingFactor(18, 45),
        randomScalingFactor(18, 45)
      ],
      label: "Improved ETA",
      borderColor: "#e67e22",
      borderWidth: 2,
      fill: false,
      lineTension: 0
    }]
  },
  options: {
    responsive: true,
    maintainAspectRatio: false,
    title: {
      display: true,
      text: 'Improved ETA',
      fontSize: 14,
      fontFamily: 'Arial',
      fontColor: '#000'
    },
    legend: {
      display: false
    },
    scales: {
      xAxes: [{
        ticks: {
          padding: 12
        },
        gridLines: {
          color: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.06)',
          zeroLineColor: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.06)',
          drawTicks: false
        }
      }],
      yAxes: [{
        ticks: {
          suggestedMin: 0,
          suggestedMax: 80,
          padding: 12
        },
        scaleLabel: {
          display: true,
          labelString: 'mins'
        },
        gridLines: {
          color: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.06)',
          zeroLineColor: 'rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.06)',
          drawTicks: false
        }
      }]
    }
  }
};

window.onload = function() {
  var ctx = document.getElementById('foo').getContext('2d');
  window.myLine = new Chart(ctx, cfg);
};

<div style="width: 600px; height: 400px;">
  <canvas id="foo"></canvas>
</div>

Answer 1

First you should omit labels but define your data as individual points, where each element has a t and an y property.

data: [
  { t: '4:45', y: 67 },
  { t: '6:12', y: 45 },
  { t: '7:33', y: 56 },
],

With above data, xAxes.time option will have to be defined as follows:

time: {
  parser: 'H:mm',
  unit: 'hour',
  stepSize: 1,
  displayFormats: {
    hour: 'H:mm'
  },
  tooltipFormat: 'H:mm'
},

Further you can define the xAxis.ticks option as follows:

ticks: {
  min: '0:00', 
  max: '8:00' 
}

As you already noticed, Chart.js internally uses Moment.js for the functionality of the time axis. Therefore you should use the bundled version of Chart.js that includes Moment.js in a single file.

Please take a look at the runnable code below and see how it works.

new Chart('myChart', {
  type: 'line',
  data: {
    datasets: [{
      label: 'My Dataset',      
      data: [
        { t: '4:45', y: 67 },
        { t: '6:12', y: 45 },
        { t: '7:33', y: 56 },
      ],
      borderColor: 'blue',
      fill: 'false',
    }]
  },
  options: {
    scales: {
      yAxes: [{
        ticks: {
          beginAtZero: true
        }
      }],
      xAxes: [{
        type: 'time',
        time: {
          parser: 'H:mm',
          unit: 'hour',
          stepSize: 1,
          displayFormats: {
            hour: 'H:mm'
          },
          tooltipFormat: 'H:mm'
        },
        ticks: {
          min: '0:00', 
          max: '8:00' 
        }
      }]      
    }
  }
});

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/Chart.js/2.9.4/Chart.bundle.min.js"></script>
<canvas id="myChart" height="90"></canvas>