Proper way to remove all series data from a highcharts chart?

Z Jones picture Z Jones · Jul 7, 2011 · Viewed 85.3k times · Source

UPDATE: Here's a jsfiddle that shows the problem: http://jsfiddle.net/pynju/1/

Click on the blue column on Monday. When the detail-view loads, notice that 01-07 have 3 columns (expected 2). Click on the tallest bar to go back to the original view. Notice that the labels on the xAxis aren't being removed.

===============

I have a bar chart that has 2 series, displayed as pairs of bars, side by side.

series: [{
         showInLegend: false,
         data: dowChartData
      },{
         showInLegend: false,
         data: avgUserDowChartData
      }],

.

dowChartData = [                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   {
                y: 98.74,
                color: '#0072ff',
                drilldown: {
                   name: 'Category Engagement - Sunday',
                   categories: ['00','01','02','03','04','05','06','07','08','09','10','11','12','13','14','15','16','17','18','19','20','21','22','23'],
                   data: [0,637,0,0,0,173,48.54,48.54,0,0,0,0,0,0,102.24,166.36,706.59,699.18,298.32,184.14,97.08,1539,0,1224.56],
                   color: '#0072ff',
                   data2: [506.80686467275,354.56354558498,333.25158689567,234.19283190879,234.82132336088,220.03247578171,222.86420797556,218.14034615202,170.42559544164,171.54776353196,249.24788461442,345.14915669555,206.65543589797,243.38811965637,367.02593304906,378.83677778129,467.45739743621,424.26264387522,639.60922934374,679.71299714907,373.26353846375,480.94380626458,551.82326068362,466.77469230724],
                   color2: '#C00'
                }
             }
AND SIMILAR

.

avgUserDowChartData = [                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         {
                y: 142.35,
                color: '#C00'
             },
AND SIMILAR

The initial data is day of week data with the X-axis being: Sunday - Monday - Tues - Wed - Thurs - Fri - Saturday

The initial series has a drilldown element with a new data & data2 (see above)

Using the drilldown demo code as an example, I have this code in place:

column: {
              borderWidth: 0,
            cursor: 'pointer',
            point: {
               events: {
                  click: function(event) {
                     var drilldown = this.drilldown;
                     if (drilldown) { // drill down
                        setChart(dowChart, drilldown.name, drilldown.categories, drilldown.data, drilldown.color, drilldown.data2, drilldown.color2);
                     } else { // restore
                        setChart(dowChart, '', dowCategories, dowChartData);
                     }
                  }
               }
            },

Set chart handler:

function setChart(chart, name, categories, data, color, data2, color2) {
      chart.xAxis[0].setCategories(categories);
//      chart.series[0].remove();
      for (var i = 0; i < chart.series.length; i++) {
          chart.series[i].remove();
      }
      chart.addSeries({
         showInLegend: false,
         name: name,
         data: data,
         color: color || 'white'
      });
      if (typeof(data2) != undefined && data2.length > 0) {
          chart.addSeries({
             showInLegend: false,
             name: name,
             data: data2,
             color: color2 || 'white'
          });
      }
   }

The initial chart display perfectly fine: initial display

When you click on any of the blue bars (the data set that has the drilldown), things get wonky for the first 7 x-axis items: drill down - broken display

It's as if the initial data sets aren't being removed by the code:

for (var i = 0; i < chart.series.length; i++) {
          chart.series[i].remove();
      }

When you click on any of the bars with the intention of resetting to the original data set/series: reset data to original set - broken display

So... it's clear that the remove series code I'm using isn't working. What's the best way to completely remove the data on the chart and the 2 series I need to display each time depending on what is clicked?

Answer

Lee picture Lee · Aug 11, 2011

try this to remove all chart series,

while(chart.series.length > 0)
    chart.series[0].remove(true);

it works for me. the code

for (var i = 0; i < chart.series.length; i++)

won't work because the chart.series.length is decreased each time remove() is called. That way, the i will never reach the expected length. Hope this helps.