Drawing timeline

Question

I have a dataset which consists of repeating events over time. Each event takes an arbitrary amount of time. I could plot this using gnuplot but am unable to produce correct keys because of the hackish nature of script. I had to manually draw legends. The plot looks like this:

Could I do something like this via TikZ or some other graphing tool?

My dataset looks as follows:

running 20
stage-out 47
running 34
stage-in 3
running 24
stage-out 39
...

As shown above, the file is a two-column text where the first column represents event name and the second column the time interval for that event.

Answer 1

After all my failed attempts (deleted) I got one version to work.

The problem was, that inside of the axis environment the loop of \DTLforeach didn't expand the macros at the proper moment, but after the loop ended. This led to the result that only one (i.e. the last) box was drawn.

This solution circumvents this as it assembles all the TikZ commands before (\eappto) but \draw or \fill must not be expanded which is the reason it is preceded by \noexpand.

Solution 1

This solution uses pgfplots only for the axes, the boxes are drawn by TikZ.

Code

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[separator={{ }}]{datatool}% loads etoolbox
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\def\maximum{0}
\def\whattodraw{}

\begin{filecontents}{dataset.dat}
running 20
stage-out 47
running 34
stage-in 3
running 24
stage-out 39
\end{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents}{datasetcolor.dat}
stage-in red!75
stage-out green
running orange
\end{filecontents}

\DTLloaddb[noheader,keys={name,value},headers={name,value}]{dataset}{dataset.dat}
\DTLloaddb[noheader,keys={namec,color},headers={namec,color}]{datasetcolor}{datasetcolor.dat}

\DTLforeach*{datasetcolor}{\name=namec,\tikzColor=color}{
        \tikzset{DSCOLOR\name/.estyle={fill=\tikzColor}}
}

\DTLforeach{dataset}{\name=name,\val=value}{
    \DTLappendtorow{cumval}{\maximum}
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\maximum}{\maximum+\val}
}

\DTLforeach*{dataset}{\nameb=name,\valb=value,\cumval=cumval}{%
    \eappto\whattodraw{\noexpand\fill [DSCOLOR\nameb] (axis cs:\cumval,0.5) rectangle %
%       node[rotate=90,text width=2cm,align=center] {\nameb} %
        ++ (axis cs:\valb,1);%
    }
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{cl}
\DTLforeach*{datasetcolor}{\name=namec,\tikzColor=color}{
        \tikz\fill[DSCOLOR\name] (0,0) rectangle (2em,1.3ex); & \name \\
}
\end{tabular}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    xmin=0,
    xmax=\maximum,
    ymin=0,
    ymax=2,
    axis y line=none,
    axis x line=bottom,
    height=5cm,
    legend columns=-1,
    width=\textwidth,
    xlabel={$t/{\textrm s}\quad (t_{\max} = \maximum)$}
]
\whattodraw
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Output

Solution 2

This solution uses the xbar stacked style from pgfplots. There are no calculations needed, this is all done by pgfplots (thanks to stack dir=plus we don't even need to culuminate the entries).

Sadly, the scatter classes and the legend have yet to be built manually.

Code

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[separator={{ }}]{datatool}% loads etoolbox
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\def\whattodraw{}

\begin{filecontents}{dataset.dat}
running 20
stage-out 47
running 34
stage-in 3
running 24
stage-out 39
\end{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents}{datasetcolor.dat}
stage-in red!75
stage-out green
running orange
\end{filecontents}

\DTLloaddb[noheader,keys={name,value},headers={name,value}]{dataset}{dataset.dat}
\DTLloaddb[noheader,keys={name,color},headers={name,color}]{datasetcolor}{datasetcolor.dat}

\DTLforeach{datasetcolor}{\name=name,\tikzColor=color}{
    \tikzset{DSCOLOR\name/.estyle={fill=\tikzColor}}
}

\DTLforeach*{dataset}{\namea=name,\vala=value}{%
    \eappto\whattodraw{%
        \noexpand\addplot[
            scatter,
            DSCOLOR\namea,
            no marks,
            draw=none,
            scatter src=explicit symbolic
        ] coordinates {(\vala,0) [\namea]};
    }
}

\begin{document}
\ref{legendhere}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    xmin=0,
    axis y line=none,
    axis x line=bottom,
    xbar stacked,
    stack dir=plus,
    height=5cm,
    legend columns=-1,
    width=\textwidth,
    legend to name={legendhere},
    scatter/classes={
        stage-in={red!75},%
        running={orange},%
        stage-out={green}}
]
\whattodraw
\legend{stage-in,running,stage-out}
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Output

Solution without pgfplots

Code

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[separator={{ }}]{datatool}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\def\maximum{0}

\newlength{\barHeight}\newlength{\barWidth}\newlength{\currentX}\newlength{\nextX}
\setlength{\barHeight}{2cm}
\setlength{\barWidth}{10cm}
\setlength{\currentX}{0cm}

\begin{filecontents}{dataset.dat}
running 20
stage-out 47
running 34
stage-in 3
running 24
stage-out 39
\end{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{datasetcolor.dat}
stage-in red!75
stage-out green
running orange
\end{filecontents}

\DTLloaddb[noheader,keys={name,value},headers={name,value}]{dataset}{dataset.dat}
\DTLloaddb[noheader,keys={namec,color},headers={namec,color}]{datasetcolor}{datasetcolor.dat}

\DTLforeach*{datasetcolor}{\name=namec,\tikzColor=color}{
    \tikzset{DSCOLOR\name/.estyle={fill=\tikzColor}}
}
\DTLforeach{dataset}{\name=name,\val=value}{
    \DTLappendtorow{cumval}{\maximum}
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\maximum}{\maximum+\val}
}

\pgfdeclarelayer{background}
\pgfdeclarelayer{main}
\pgfsetlayers{background,main}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\DTLforeach*{dataset}{\name=name,\val=value}{
    \pgfmathsetlength{\nextX}{\val/\maximum*\the\barWidth}
    \begin{pgfonlayer}{background}
        \fill [DSCOLOR\name] (\the\currentX,0) rectangle ++ (\the\nextX,\the\barHeight);
    \end{pgfonlayer}
    \draw[|-|,shorten >=-.5\pgflinewidth,shorten <=-.5\pgflinewidth] (\the\currentX,.5*\the\barHeight) -- node [below] {\val} ++ (\the\nextX,0) ;
    \pgfmathsetlength{\currentX}{\currentX+\nextX}
}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Output