A time series chart displays sequence of data points, which varies at equal intervals of time. This chapter demonstrates — how we can use JFreeChart to create Time Series Chart from a given set of business data.

Business Data

Let us consider various random numbers generated by using standard Java API Math.random(). We use these numbers to generate a Time Series Chart. You can generate similar chart for total number of errors occurring in your website at a given interval of time.

AWT Based Application

Following is the code to create Time Series Chart from the numbers generated by Math.random() at a given time internal.

import org.jfree.chart.ChartFactory; 
import org.jfree.chart.ChartPanel; 
import org.jfree.chart.JFreeChart; 
import org.jfree.data.general.SeriesException; 
import org.jfree.data.time.Second; 
import org.jfree.data.time.TimeSeries; 
import org.jfree.data.time.TimeSeriesCollection; 
import org.jfree.data.xy.XYDataset; 
import org.jfree.ui.ApplicationFrame; 
import org.jfree.ui.RefineryUtilities;

public class TimeSeries_AWT extends ApplicationFrame {

   public TimeSeries_AWT( final String title ) {
      super( title );         
      final XYDataset dataset = createDataset( );         
      final JFreeChart chart = createChart( dataset );         
      final ChartPanel chartPanel = new ChartPanel( chart );         
      chartPanel.setPreferredSize( new java.awt.Dimension( 560 , 370 ) );         
      chartPanel.setMouseZoomable( true , false );         
      setContentPane( chartPanel );
   }

   private XYDataset createDataset( ) {
      final TimeSeries series = new TimeSeries( "Random Data" );         
      Second current = new Second( );         
      double value = 100.0;         
      
      for (int i = 0; i < 4000; i++) {
         
         try {
            value = value + Math.random( ) - 0.5;                 
            series.add(current, new Double( value ) );                 
            current = ( Second ) current.next( ); 
         } catch ( SeriesException e ) {
            System.err.println("Error adding to series");
         }
      }

      return new TimeSeriesCollection(series);
   }     

   private JFreeChart createChart( final XYDataset dataset ) {
      return ChartFactory.createTimeSeriesChart(             
         "Computing Test", 
         "Seconds",              
         "Value",              
         dataset,             
         false,              
         false,              
         false);
   }

   public static void main( final String[ ] args ) {
      final String title = "Time Series Management";         
      final TimeSeries_AWT demo = new TimeSeries_AWT( title );         
      demo.pack( );         
      RefineryUtilities.positionFrameRandomly( demo );         
      demo.setVisible( true );
   }
}   

Let us keep the above Java code in TimeSeries_AWT.java file, and then compile and run it from the command prompted as −

$javac TimeSeries_AWT.java  
$java TImeSeries_AWT 

If everything is fine, it will compile and run to generate the following Time Series Graph −

JPEG Image Creation

Let us re-write the above example to generate a JPEG image from a command line.

import java.io.*;

import org.jfree.chart.ChartFactory;
import org.jfree.chart.JFreeChart;
import org.jfree.data.general.SeriesException;
import org.jfree.data.time.Second;
import org.jfree.data.time.TimeSeries;
import org.jfree.data.time.TimeSeriesCollection;
import org.jfree.data.xy.XYDataset;
import org.jfree.chart.ChartUtilities;

public class TimeSeriesChart {
   
   public static void main( final String[ ] args )throws Exception {
      final TimeSeries series = new TimeSeries( "Random Data" );
      Second current = new Second();
      double value = 100.0;
      
      for ( int i = 0 ; i < 4000 ; i++ ) {
         
         try {
            value = value + Math.random( ) - 0.5;
            series.add( current , new Double( value ) );
            current = ( Second ) current.next( );
         } catch ( SeriesException e ) {
            System.err.println( "Error adding to series" );
         }
      }
      
      final XYDataset dataset=( XYDataset )new TimeSeriesCollection(series);
      JFreeChart timechart = ChartFactory.createTimeSeriesChart(
         "Computing Test", 
         "Seconds", 
         "Value", 
         dataset,
         false, 
         false, 
         false);
         
      int width = 560;   /* Width of the image */
      int height = 370;  /* Height of the image */ 
      File timeChart = new File( "TimeChart.jpeg" ); 
      ChartUtilities.saveChartAsJPEG( timeChart, timechart, width, height );
   }
}

Let us keep the above Java code in TimeSeriesChart.java file, and then compile and run it from the command prompted as −

$javac TimeSeriesChart.java  
$java TimeSeriesChart

If everything is fine with your environment, it will compile and run to create a JPEG image file TimeChart.jpeg file in your current directory.