How to plot data from a CSV file using tikz and csvsimple?

Question

Here is a minimal example :

\begin{filecontents*}{data.csv}
a,b,c,d
1,4,5,1
2,3,1,5
3,5,6,1
4,1,4,9
5,3,4,7
\end{filecontents*}

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{csvsimple}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw plot coordinates {%
\csvreader[head to column names]{data.csv}{}{(\a,\b) }
};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

The command \csvreader[head to column names]{data.csv}{}{(\a,\b) } extracts coordinates (columns a and c) from the CSV file data.csv :

(1,4) (2,3) (3,5) (4,1) (5,3)

And yet, it seems that I can't plot the points above using tikz :

Package tikz Error: Cannot parse this coordinate

Any idea ?

Answer 1

If you need to plot data from files, I think you'll be much happier if you use PGFPlots instead of the native plot functionality of TikZ. Here's a very simple example of plotting your example data to get you started.

PGFPlots is very customizable, you can tweak virtually every aspect of your plots, and it's much more user-friendly than if you tried to knit everything yourself.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{data.csv}
a,b,c,d
1,4,5,1
2,3,1,5
3,5,6,1
4,1,4,9
5,3,4,7
\end{filecontents*}


\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}
\addplot table [x=a, y=c, col sep=comma] {data.csv};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Answer 2

It seems that it's impossible to call csvreader inside \draw plot coordinates { }. To avoid the plot command and still being able to plot lines between points, I need to use xdef to remember the previous point.

\begin{filecontents*}{data.csv}
a,b,c,d
1,4,5,1
2,3,1,5
3,5,6,1
4,1,4,9
5,3,4,7
\end{filecontents*}

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{csvsimple}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \csvreader[ head to column names,%
                late after head=\xdef\aold{\a}\xdef\bold{\b},%
                after line=\xdef\aold{\a}\xdef\bold{\b}]%
                {data.csv}{}{%
    \draw (\aold, \bold) -- (\a,\b) node {$\times$};
    }
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

I get the output below. Now I can get back to work and print a whole bunch of data in my report ;-) I love it !

Answer 3

Another example with csvsimple, tikz and pgf-pie.

\begin{filecontents*}{newData.csv}
20,30,50
\end{filecontents*}

\documentclass[10pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\usepackage{csvsimple}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgf-pie}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\csvreader[no head]%
{newData.csv}
{1=\colVali,2=\colValii,3=\colValiii}
{%
  \pie[polar, explode=0.1]
  {\colVali/A, \colValii/B, \colValiii/C}
}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Which produces the following pie chart:

Answer 4

Another example, based on a request for drafting a practical load curve of electricity, example that requires some style manipulations that are not very concentrated in the examples of the books, so it is a compilation of the manuals taken from here and there.

RESULT:

MWE:

\documentclass[border=5pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.14}

\begin{document}
    \begin{filecontents}{data01.dat}
        0   5          
        1    8       
        2    6        
        3    7        
        4    6        
        5    7      
        6    10        
        7    11         
        8    14       
        9    15        
        10   12       
        11   11       
        12   4       
        13   5        
        14   10      
        15   11         
        16   13           
        17   14        
        18   13       
        19   20      
        20   24           
        21   18       
        22   19        
        23   15     
        24   5          
    \end{filecontents}

    \begin{tikzpicture}[
        %Environment Cfg.
        font=\bfseries\sffamily,
    ]
    \begin{axis}[
        width=12cm,
        height=8cm,
        at={(0,0)},
        ymin=0,
        ymax=30,
        xmin=0,
        xmax=30,
        grid=both,
        minor tick num =5,
        minor tick style={draw=none},
        minor grid style={thin,color=black!10},
        major grid style={thin,color=black!10},
        ylabel={L\\O\\A\\D\\[5pt] kW.},
        xlabel=Time in Hours,
        tick align=outside,
        axis x line*=middle,
        axis y line*=none,
        xtick={0,5,...,30},
        ytick={0,5,...,30},
        xlabel style={color=blue!50!cyan},
        ylabel style={align=center,rotate=-90,color=blue!50!cyan},
        x tick label style={
            /pgf/number format/assume math mode, font=\sf\scriptsize},
        y tick label style={
        /pgf/number format/assume math mode, font=\sf\scriptsize},
    ]
    \addplot[color=blue!50!cyan,smooth,tension=0.7,very thick] table [x index=0,y index=1,col sep=space] {data01.dat};
    \addplot[color=cyan!50!lime,very thick] coordinates{(0,5)(25,5)};
    \addplot[color=orange,very thick] coordinates{(0,11)(25,11)};
    \addplot[color=red!80!orange,very thick] coordinates{(19,24.2)(23,24.2)};
    \node[text=cyan!50!lime,fill=white,align=center,anchor=west,scale=0.8,inner sep=5pt] at (24.5,5){Base\\ Load};
    \node[color=orange,fill=white,align=center,anchor=west,scale=0.8,inner sep=5pt] at (24.5,11){Average\\ Load};
    \node[color=red!80!orange,fill=white,align=center,anchor=west,scale=0.8,inner sep=5pt] at (21.2,24.2){Maxium\\ Load};
    \end{axis}

    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}