JFreeChart area chart

In this example, we will create an area chart using JFreeChart library.

JFreeChart is a popular Java library for creating charts. JFreeChart allows to create a wide variety of both interactive and non-interactive charts. We can create line charts, bar charts, area charts, scatter charts, pie charts, Gantt charts, and various specialized charts such as wind charts or bubble charts.

JFreeChart Maven dependency

For our projects, we use the below Maven dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.jfree</groupId>
    <artifactId>jfreechart</artifactId>
    <version>1.5.0</version>
</dependency>

JFreeChart area chart

An area chart displays graphically quantitative data that change over time. An area chart is created with ChartFactory.createAreaChart() method in JFreeChart.

The example shows an area chart showing world crude oil consumption by year:

import org.jfree.chart.ChartFactory;
import org.jfree.chart.ChartPanel;
import org.jfree.chart.JFreeChart;
import org.jfree.chart.plot.CategoryPlot;
import org.jfree.chart.plot.PlotOrientation;
import org.jfree.chart.renderer.AreaRendererEndType;
import org.jfree.chart.renderer.category.AreaRenderer;
import org.jfree.chart.title.TextTitle;
import org.jfree.data.category.CategoryDataset;
import org.jfree.data.general.DatasetUtils;

import javax.swing.BorderFactory;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.Font;

public class AreaChartEx extends JFrame {

    public AreaChartEx() {

        initUI();
    }

    private void initUI() {

        CategoryDataset dataset = createDataset();

        JFreeChart chart = createChart(dataset);
        ChartPanel chartPanel = new ChartPanel(chart);
        chartPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(15, 15, 15, 15));
        chartPanel.setBackground(Color.white);
        add(chartPanel);

        pack();
        setTitle("Area chart");
        setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    }

    private CategoryDataset createDataset() {

        double[][] data = new double[][]{
                {82502, 84026, 85007, 86216, 85559, 84491, 87672,
                        88575, 89837, 90701}
        };

        CategoryDataset dataset = DatasetUtils.createCategoryDataset(
                new String[]{"Oil"}, new String[]{"2004", "2005", "2006",
                        "2007", "2008", "2009", "2010", "2011", "2012", "2013"},
                data
        );

        return dataset;
    }

    private JFreeChart createChart(CategoryDataset dataset) {

        JFreeChart chart = ChartFactory.createAreaChart(
                "Oil consumption",
                "Time",
                "Thousands bbl/day",
                dataset,
                PlotOrientation.VERTICAL,
                false,
                true,
                true
        );

        CategoryPlot plot = (CategoryPlot) chart.getPlot();
        plot.setForegroundAlpha(0.3f);

        AreaRenderer renderer = (AreaRenderer) plot.getRenderer();
        renderer.setEndType(AreaRendererEndType.LEVEL);

        chart.setTitle(new TextTitle("Oil consumption",
                new Font("Serif", java.awt.Font.BOLD, 18))
        );

        return chart;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        EventQueue.invokeLater(() -> {

            var ex = new AreaChartEx();
            ex.setVisible(true);
        });
    }
}

Run above program will produce the below output: