Understanding US Gun Violence using Altair and Tableau
AAAS24
November 30, 2022
Project Description
Altair is a python library that enables interactive data visualization. Tableau is a robust software platform that provides visualization capabilities. Matplot is a python native library that enables data visualization. I aimed to discover what can be achieved using each tools, where do they overlap and defer.
TABLE OF CONTENT
DATASETS
To evaluate the tools I chose to explore Gun Violence in the United States since it is a topic frequently refer in media news worldwide. It is a sad reality but complex issue that affects my family directly and therefore I sought to explore different data sources that allowed me a better understanding of the issue while using Altair and Tableau.
| Dataset | Description |
| Mother Jones | Mother Jones offers a open-source database in order to have an in-depth look at a distinct phenomenon—from the firearms used and mental health factors to the growing copycat problem. |
| The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killings database | Overall counting |
| The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killings database | Population by state |
ALTAIR VS TABLEAU
Open Source Software will rarely be able to compete one on one to paid software. However, there is an advantage in time efficiency for advance programmers to remain inside one ecosystem (namely python) while exploring and sharing data. Having said that:
-
Altair provides a quick way to combine graphics with simple codes. In code, this is simply achieved by using ‘&’ and ‘ ’ characters as can be seen in the following example:
- The results of the Jupyter Notebook can not be compared to the visualizations achieved effortlessly in Tableau. However, for punctual sharing of specific results, without having to provide access to entire notebooks, one can see the value of Altair’s proposition.
ALTAIR VS MATPLOT
I tried to create five-thirty-eigth style graphs in both Matplot and Altair. From that effort, I can say:
-
Altair lacks flexibility when compared to Matplot’s ability to create boxes at the footnote or annotationsSee Examples. This makes sense as it is mainly thought as a way to share within a website, not as a stand-alone graph.
-
Altair allows to create themes that can be utilized for personalizing the output of a graph similarly to Matplot. This is achieved by performing the following code:
def my_theme():
markColor = '#30a2da';
axisColor = '#cbcbcb';
guideLabelColor = '#999';
guideTitleColor = '#333';
backgroundColor = '#f0f0f0';
blackTitle = '#333';
return {
'config': {
'arc': {'fill': markColor},
'area': {'fill': markColor},
'axis': {
'domainColor': axisColor,
'grid': True,
'gridColor': axisColor,
'gridOpacity':0.3,
'gridWidth': 1,
'labelColor': guideLabelColor,
'labelFontSize': 10,
'titleColor': guideTitleColor,
'tickColor': axisColor,
'tickSize': 10,
'titleFontSize': 14,
'titlePadding': 10,
'labelPadding': 4,
},
'axisBand': {
'grid': False,
},
'background': backgroundColor,
'group': {
'fill': backgroundColor,
},
'legend': {
'labelColor': blackTitle,
'labelFontSize': 11,
'padding': 1,
'symbolSize': 30,
'symbolType': 'square',
'titleColor': blackTitle,
'titleFontSize': 14,
'titlePadding': 10,
},
'line': {
'stroke': markColor,
'strokeWidth': 2,
},
'path': {'stroke': markColor, 'strokeWidth': 0.5},
'rect': {'fill': markColor},
'range': {
'category': [
'#30a2da',
'#fc4f30',
'#e5ae38',
'#6d904f',
'#8b8b8b',
'#b96db8',
'#ff9e27',
'#56cc60',
'#52d2ca',
'#52689e',
'#545454',
'#9fe4f8',
],
'diverging': ['#cc0020', '#e77866', '#f6e7e1', '#d6e8ed', '#91bfd9', '#1d78b5'],
'heatmap': ['#d6e8ed', '#cee0e5', '#91bfd9', '#549cc6', '#1d78b5'],
},
'point': {
'filled': True,
'shape': 'circle',
},
'shape': {'stroke': markColor},
'bar': {
'binSpacing': 2,
'fill': markColor,
'stroke': None
},
'title': {
'anchor': 'start',
'fontSize': 24,
'fontWeight': 600,
'offset': 20,
},
#
'mark': {
'color': 'black',
'fill': None
}
}
}
# register the custom theme under a chosen name
alt.themes.register('my_theme', my_theme)
# enable the newly registered theme
alt.themes.enable('my_theme')
