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Encyclopedia of Database Systems pp 1–2Cite as

Chart

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Synonyms

Diagram; Graph; Information graphic; Map

Definition

A chart is an instrument to consolidate and display information.

The term is applied to virtually any graphic that displays information, be it a map used for navigation, a plan for military operations, a musical arrangement, barometric pressure, genealogical data, and even lists of tunes that are most popular at a given time.

Definitions of specialized charts typically include the graphical method on which the chart is based (e.g., bar chart) and or its application area (e.g., CPM chart), but it does not specify design principles. Tufte [2] introduces the notion of “chartjunk” and defines it to be that part of the chart which functions only as decoration, all of which is considered to redundant data ink.

Sometimes charts are reduced to refer to maps and diagrams, excluding graphs and tables.

Key Points

Because charts are used for different purposes, there exist almost as many different types of charts as there are...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Harris RL. Information graphics: a comprehensive illustrated reference. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1999.

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  2. Tufte ER. The visual display of quantitative information. Cheshire: Graphics Press; 1983.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, ETH Zürich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Hans Hinterberger

Authors
  1. Hans Hinterberger
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hans Hinterberger .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. Inst. of Scientific Computing, ETH Zürich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Hans Hinterberger

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Cite this entry

Hinterberger, H. (2017). Chart. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_1375-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_1375-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-7993-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-7993-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Computer SciencesReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

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