stack()

stack(data[, arguments…])

Generates a stack for the given array of data, returning an array representing each series. Any additional arguments are arbitrary; they are simply propagated to accessors along with the this object.

The series are determined by the keys accessor; each series i in the returned array corresponds to the ith key. Each series is an array of points, where each point j corresponds to the jth element in the input data. Lastly, each point is represented as an array [y0, y1] where y0 is the lower value (baseline) and y1 is the upper value (topline); the difference between y0 and y1 corresponds to the computed value for this point. The key for each series is available as series.key, and the index as series.index. The input data element for each point is available as point.data.

For example, consider the following table representing monthly sales of fruits:

This might be represented in JavaScript as an array of objects:

var data = [
  {month: new Date(2015, 0, 1), apples: 3840, bananas: 1920, cherries: 960, dates: 400},
  {month: new Date(2015, 1, 1), apples: 1600, bananas: 1440, cherries: 960, dates: 400},
  {month: new Date(2015, 2, 1), apples:  640, bananas:  960, cherries: 640, dates: 400},
  {month: new Date(2015, 3, 1), apples:  320, bananas:  480, cherries: 640, dates: 400}
];

To produce a stack for this data:

var stack = d3.stack()
    .keys(["apples", "bananas", "cherries", "dates"])
    .order(d3.stackOrderNone)
    .offset(d3.stackOffsetNone);

var series = stack(data);

The resulting array has one element per series. Each series has one point per month, and each point has a lower and upper value defining the baseline and topline:

[
  [[   0, 3840], [   0, 1600], [   0,  640], [   0,  320]], // apples
  [[3840, 5760], [1600, 3040], [ 640, 1600], [ 320,  800]], // bananas
  [[5760, 6720], [3040, 4000], [1600, 2240], [ 800, 1440]], // cherries
  [[6720, 7120], [4000, 4400], [2240, 2640], [1440, 1840]], // dates
]

Each series in then typically passed to an area generator to render an area chart, or used to construct rectangles for a bar chart.