observablehq / observablehq/plot

Clustering values?

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enhancement
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HTML
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Description

Here are a few cases where we want to cluster (ordinal or continuous) values:

  • box plots with a continuous orthogonal dimension #1330
  • facets on a continuous dimension #14
  • a subset of ordinal values with an "Others" group #144
  • unknown (a place to represent "N/A", #651, #493)

If “group” could understand clusters (mapping dimension x to a cluster), and if “bar” could unpack them (mapping the cluster to to x1…x2 if appropriate), maybe all these issues might be resolved at once.

In a sense, a cluster exists both as a category (as part of a discrete set of categories), and as a subset of the original dimension (point location x, segment [x1, x2], or discrete subset of an original categorical domain).

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Research direction

Review the related cases in issues #1330, #14, #144, #651, and #493, then determine whether one clustering model can cover their different representations. Done would require a decided design for how group creates clusters and how bar unpacks them.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
data-visualization
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
20/100

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