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Conditional transforms in Vega


In the Vega documentation for transforms, this is given as an example:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "name": "table",
      "transform": [
        { "type": "filter", "expr": "datum.value > 5" },
        { "type": "stack", "field": "value", "groupby": ["category"] }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Let two boolean signals be called is_filter and is_stack. Is it possible to conditionally execute transforms based on these signals? Something like this (which doesn't actually work):

{
  "data": [
    {
      "name": "table",
      "transform": [
        { "type": "filter", "expr": "datum.value > 5", "run_if": "is_filter"},
        { "type": "stack", "field": "value", "groupby": ["category"], "run_if": "is_stack"}
      ]
    }
  ]
}

It would be good to avoid creating a dataset for each combination of transforms and using conditional logic in the marks.


Solution

  • Include all the logic in the expression. Changing the is_filter signal will change the filter here:

    {
      "$schema": "https://vega.github.io/schema/vega/v5.json",
      "description": "A basic bar chart example, with value labels shown upon pointer hover.",
      "width": 400,
      "height": 200,
      "padding": 5,
      "data": [
        {
          "name": "table",
          "values": [
            {"category": "A", "amount": 28},
            {"category": "B", "amount": 55},
            {"category": "C", "amount": 43},
            {"category": "D", "amount": 91},
            {"category": "E", "amount": 81},
            {"category": "F", "amount": 53},
            {"category": "G", "amount": 19},
            {"category": "H", "amount": 87}
          ],
          "transform": [
            {"type": "filter", "expr": "is_filter?datum.amount > 40:datum.amount < 40"}
          ]
        }
      ],
      "signals": [
        {
          "name": "tooltip",
          "value": {},
          "on": [
            {"events": "rect:pointerover", "update": "datum"},
            {"events": "rect:pointerout", "update": "{}"}
          ]
        },
        {"name": "is_filter", "value": true}
      ],
      "scales": [
        {
          "name": "xscale",
          "type": "band",
          "domain": {"data": "table", "field": "category"},
          "range": "width",
          "padding": 0.05,
          "round": true
        },
        {
          "name": "yscale",
          "domain": {"data": "table", "field": "amount"},
          "nice": true,
          "range": "height"
        }
      ],
      "axes": [
        {"orient": "bottom", "scale": "xscale"},
        {"orient": "left", "scale": "yscale"}
      ],
      "marks": [
        {
          "type": "rect",
          "from": {"data": "table"},
          "encode": {
            "enter": {
              "x": {"scale": "xscale", "field": "category"},
              "width": {"scale": "xscale", "band": 1},
              "y": {"scale": "yscale", "field": "amount"},
              "y2": {"scale": "yscale", "value": 0}
            },
            "update": {"fill": {"value": "steelblue"}},
            "hover": {"fill": {"value": "red"}}
          }
        },
        {
          "type": "text",
          "encode": {
            "enter": {
              "align": {"value": "center"},
              "baseline": {"value": "bottom"},
              "fill": {"value": "#333"}
            },
            "update": {
              "x": {"scale": "xscale", "signal": "tooltip.category", "band": 0.5},
              "y": {"scale": "yscale", "signal": "tooltip.amount", "offset": -2},
              "text": {"signal": "tooltip.amount"},
              "fillOpacity": [
                {"test": "datum === tooltip", "value": 0},
                {"value": 1}
              ]
            }
          }
        }
      ]
    }