Arbitrary 2D curves with Highcharts

Highcharts is a versatile JavaScript charting library for the web. The library supports all kinds of charts: scatter plots, line charts, area chart, bar charts, pie charts and more.

A data series of type line or spline connects the points in the order of the x-axis when rendered. It is possible to invert the axes by setting the property inverted: true in the chart options.

var chart = $('#chart').highcharts({
  chart: {
    inverted: true
  },
  series: [{
    name: 'Example',
    type: 'line',
    data: [
      {x: 10, y: 50},
      {x: 20, y: 56.5},
      {x: 30, y: 46.5},
      // ...
    ]
  }]
});

Connecting points in an arbitrary order

Connecting the points in an arbitrary order, however, is not supported by default. I couldn’t find a Highcharts plugin which supports this either, so I implemented a solution by modifying the getGraphPath function of the series object:

var series = $('#chart').highcharts().series[0];
var oldGetGraphPath = series.getGraphPath;
Object.getPrototypeOf(series).getGraphPath = function(points, nullsAsZeroes, connectCliffs) {
  points = points || this.points;
  points.sort(function(a, b) {
    return a.sortIndex - b.sortIndex;
  });
  return oldGetGraphPath.call(this, points, nullsAsZeroes, connectCliffs);
};

The new function sorts the points by a new property called sortIndex before the line path of the chart gets rendered. This new property must be assigned to each point object of the series data:

series.setData([
  {x: 10, y: 50, sortIndex: 1},
  {x: 20, y: 56.5, sortIndex: 2},
  {x: 30, y: 46.5, sortIndex: 3},
  // ...
], true);

Now we can render charts with points connected in an arbitrary order like this: