javascript - Array.map() vs d3.selectAll().data.enter()

Question

I am trying to understand what's benefit of using d3.selectAll.data.enter() to loop through a dataset and plot it.

  var data = [4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42];

  var x = d3.scale.linear()
      .domain([0, d3.max(data)])
      .range([0, 420]);

  let chartsvg = d3.select(".chart").append("svg");

  chartsvg.selectAll("rect")
    .data(data)
    .enter()
    .append("rect")
    .attr("x", 0)
    .attr("y", function(d, i) {
    return 25*i;
  })
    .attr("width", function(d) {
    return x(d);
  })
    .attr("height", 20)
    .attr("fill", "#f3b562");

I see a lot of benefit of d3's functionalities like scale, axes, etc. But it feels like using Array.map() for looping through the dataset, I can achieve the same functionality with much cleaner code and fewer lines, especially when I am creating a much more complex visualization and not a simple barebones bar chart like this.

  var data = [4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42];

  var x = d3.scale.linear()
      .domain([0, d3.max(data)])
      .range([0, 420]);

  let chartsvg = d3.select(".chart").append("svg");

  data.map(function(d, i){
    chartsvg.append("rect")
      .attr("x", 0)
      .attr("y", 25*i)  
      .attr("width", x(d))
      .attr("height", 20)
      .attr("fill", "#f3b562");
  });

Answer 1

D3 stands for Data-Driven Documents

The most powerful feature in D3, which gives the very name of the library, is its ability to bind data to DOM elements. By doing this, you can manipulate those DOM elements based on the bound data in several ways, such as (but not limited to):

• Sort
• Filter
• Translate
• Style
• Append
• Remove

And so on...

If you don't bind data to the DOM elements, for instance using the map() approach in your question (which is the same of a forEach()), you may save a couple of lines at the beginning, but you will end up with an awkward code to deal with later. Let's see it:

The map() approach

Here is a very simple code, using most of your snippet, to create a bar chart using the map() approach:

var h = 250,
  w = 500,
  p = 40;
var svg = d3.select("body")
  .append("svg")
  .attr("width", w)
  .attr("height", h);

var data = [{
  group: "foo",
  value: 14,
  name: "A"
}, {
  group: "foo",
  value: 35,
  name: "B"
}, {
  group: "foo",
  value: 87,
  name: "C"
}, {
  group: "foo",
  value: 12,
  name: "D"
}, {
  group: "bar",
  value: 84,
  name: "E"
}, {
  group: "bar",
  value: 65,
  name: "F"
}, {
  group: "bar",
  value: 34,
  name: "G"
}, {
  group: "baz",
  value: 98,
  name: "H"
}, {
  group: "baz",
  value: 12,
  name: "I"
}, {
  group: "baz",
  value: 43,
  name: "J"
}, {
  group: "baz",
  value: 66,
  name: "K"
}, {
  group: "baz",
  value: 42,
  name: "L"
}];


var color = d3.scaleOrdinal(d3.schemeCategory10);

var xScale = d3.scaleLinear()
  .range([0, w - p])
  .domain([0, d3.max(data, function(d) {
    return d.value
  })]);

var yScale = d3.scaleBand()
  .range([0, h])
  .domain(data.map(function(d) {
    return d.name
  }))
  .padding(0.1);

data.map(function(d, i) {
  svg.append("rect")
    .attr("x", p)
    .attr("y", yScale(d.name))
    .attr("width", xScale(d.value))
    .attr("height", yScale.bandwidth())
    .attr("fill", color(d.group));
});

var axis = d3.axisLeft(yScale);
var gY = svg.append("g").attr("transform", "translate(" + p + ",0)")
  .call(axis);

<script src="https://d3js.org/d3.v4.min.js"></script>