Here's a fun challenge: given an array of datetimes, what's the best way to plot those on a frequency graph over time?
They might all be on the same day, or they might be spread out over several years - so the challenge is automatically picking the most interesting bucket size
They might all be on the same day, or they might be spread out over several years - so the challenge is automatically picking the most interesting bucket size
Looks like d3.bin().thresholds() is the answer I'm looking for observablehq.com/@d3/histogram
Yup, this works perfectly: observablehq.com/@simonw/my-twe…
Turns out the default implementation of d3.bin().thresholds() without any arguments is to use Sturges' formula, which is covered on the Wikipedia Histogram page - there are a whole load of smart mathematical solutions to my original question en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histogram…
I added a tooltip to the chart showing which time period each line in the histogram represents, and wrote up the whole thing in a TIL: til.simonwillison.net/observable-plo…
d3 may use Sturges' but it turns out Observable Plot which I used for my final chart actually uses Scott’s rule instead!
https://twitter.com/mbostock/status/1429281697854464002
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