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Comparing Features with a Radar Chart

The Polar chart (also known as the Radar chart) may be used in several ways to handle cyclic timeseries or comparisons on many dimensions. If it is called with a simple list of numbers, it treats each value as a logical axis and simply plots the values out as a star shape with as many points as there were values.

This chart compares two fictional vehicles based on seven criteria which are plotted as radial lines.

The semi-transparent overlay makes it very easy to compare the ‘shapes’ which characterise the two sets of data.

SharpPlot sp = new SharpPlot;

sp.Heading = "Two Cars\nCompared";
sp.HeadingStyle = HeadingStyles.Left;

Volvo = new int[] {20,36,29,42,31,36,34};
Saab = new int[] {30,24,28,34,23,34,28};
criteria = new string[]{"Speed and handling","Fuel consumption",
         "Comfort and legroom","Reliability record","Safety",
         "Seating and luggage space","Service interval"};

sp.PolarChartStyle = PolarChartStyles.GridLines|PolarChartStyles.SurfaceShading;
sp.YAxisStyle = YAxisStyles.ForceZero;
sp.MarginLeft = 12;
sp.MarginRight = 0;
sp.SetXLabels(criteria);
sp.XLabelFormat = "XXXXXXXXX;";
sp.LabelLineSpacing = 120;

sp.SetFillStyles(FillStyle.Opacity30);

polardata = new int[][]{Volvo,Saab};
sp.DrawPolarChart(polardata,new int[0]);

Worked Examples

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