[Chartjs]-Draw a horizontal and vertical line on mouse hover in chart js

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13👍

✅

You can just add a second draw block for the y coordinate that you get from the tooltip, first you move to the left of the chartArea that you can get the same way you got bottom and top and then you move to the right on the same Y

Chart.defaults.LineWithLine = Chart.defaults.line;
Chart.controllers.LineWithLine = Chart.controllers.line.extend({
  draw: function(ease) {
    Chart.controllers.line.prototype.draw.call(this, ease);

    if (this.chart.tooltip._active && this.chart.tooltip._active.length) {
      var activePoint = this.chart.tooltip._active[0],
        ctx = this.chart.ctx,
        x = activePoint.tooltipPosition().x,
        y = activePoint.tooltipPosition().y,
        topY = this.chart.legend.bottom,
        bottomY = this.chart.chartArea.bottom,
        left = this.chart.chartArea.left,
        right = this.chart.chartArea.right;


      // Set line opts
      ctx.save();
      ctx.lineWidth = 1;
      ctx.setLineDash([3, 3]);
      ctx.strokeStyle = '#FF4949';

      // draw vertical line      
      ctx.beginPath();
      ctx.moveTo(x, topY);
      ctx.lineTo(x, bottomY);
      ctx.stroke();

      // Draw horizontal line
      ctx.beginPath();
      ctx.moveTo(left, y);
      ctx.lineTo(right, y);
      ctx.stroke();

      ctx.restore();
    }
  }
});

var options = {
  type: 'LineWithLine',
  data: {
    labels: ["Red", "Blue", "Yellow", "Green", "Purple", "Orange"],
    datasets: [{
        label: '# of Votes',
        data: [12, 19, 3, 5, 2, 3],
        borderWidth: 1
      },
      {
        label: '# of Points',
        data: [7, 11, 5, 8, 3, 7],
        borderWidth: 1
      }
    ]
  },
  options: {
  }
}

var ctx = document.getElementById('chartJSContainer').getContext('2d');
new Chart(ctx, options);
<body>
  <canvas id="chartJSContainer" width="600" height="400"></canvas>
  <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/Chart.js/2.9.4/Chart.js"></script>
</body>

Edit:

You should use a custom plugin for this since you dont draw everytime you move the cursor and you can enforce this by using a custom plugin:

const options = {
  type: 'line',
  data: {
    labels: ["Red", "Blue", "Yellow", "Green", "Purple", "Orange"],
    datasets: [{
        label: '# of Votes',
        data: [12, 19, 3, 5, 2, 3],
        borderWidth: 1
      },
      {
        label: '# of Points',
        data: [7, 11, 5, 8, 3, 7],
        borderWidth: 1
      }
    ]
  },
  options: {
    plugins: {
      corsair: {
        dash: [2, 2],
        color: 'red',
        width: 3
      }
    }
  },
  plugins: [{
    id: 'corsair',
    afterInit: (chart) => {
      chart.corsair = {
        x: 0,
        y: 0
      }
    },
    afterEvent: (chart, evt) => {
      const {
        chartArea: {
          top,
          bottom,
          left,
          right
        }
      } = chart;
      const {
        x,
        y
      } = evt;
      if (x < left || x > right || y < top || y > bottom) {
        chart.corsair = {
          x,
          y,
          draw: false
        }
        chart.draw();
        return;
      }

      chart.corsair = {
        x,
        y,
        draw: true
      }

      chart.draw();
    },
    afterDatasetsDraw: (chart, _, opts) => {
      const {
        ctx,
        chartArea: {
          top,
          bottom,
          left,
          right
        }
      } = chart;
      const {
        x,
        y,
        draw
      } = chart.corsair;

      if (!draw) {
        return;
      }

      ctx.lineWidth = opts.width || 0;
      ctx.setLineDash(opts.dash || []);
      ctx.strokeStyle = opts.color || 'black'

      ctx.save();
      ctx.beginPath();
      ctx.moveTo(x, bottom);
      ctx.lineTo(x, top);
      ctx.moveTo(left, y);
      ctx.lineTo(right, y);
      ctx.stroke();
      ctx.restore();
    }
  }]
}

const ctx = document.getElementById('chartJSContainer').getContext('2d');
new Chart(ctx, options);
<body>
  <canvas id="chartJSContainer" width="600" height="400"></canvas>
  <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/Chart.js/2.9.4/Chart.js"></script>
</body>

Edit:

Updated answer for v3

const options = {
  type: 'line',
  data: {
    labels: ["Red", "Blue", "Yellow", "Green", "Purple", "Orange"],
    datasets: [{
        label: '# of Votes',
        data: [12, 19, 3, 5, 2, 3],
        borderWidth: 1
      },
      {
        label: '# of Points',
        data: [7, 11, 5, 8, 3, 7],
        borderWidth: 1
      }
    ]
  },
  options: {
    plugins: {
      corsair: {
        dash: [2, 2],
        color: 'red',
        width: 3
      }
    }
  },
  plugins: [{
    id: 'corsair',
    afterInit: (chart) => {
      chart.corsair = {
        x: 0,
        y: 0
      }
    },
    afterEvent: (chart, evt) => {
      const {
        chartArea: {
          top,
          bottom,
          left,
          right
        }
      } = chart;
      const {
        event: {
          x,
          y
        }
      } = evt;
      if (x < left || x > right || y < top || y > bottom) {
        chart.corsair = {
          x,
          y,
          draw: false
        }
        chart.draw();
        return;
      }

      chart.corsair = {
        x,
        y,
        draw: true
      }

      chart.draw();
    },
    afterDatasetsDraw: (chart, _, opts) => {
      const {
        ctx,
        chartArea: {
          top,
          bottom,
          left,
          right
        }
      } = chart;
      const {
        x,
        y,
        draw
      } = chart.corsair;

      if (!draw) {
        return;
      }

      ctx.lineWidth = opts.width || 0;
      ctx.setLineDash(opts.dash || []);
      ctx.strokeStyle = opts.color || 'black'

      ctx.save();
      ctx.beginPath();
      ctx.moveTo(x, bottom);
      ctx.lineTo(x, top);
      ctx.moveTo(left, y);
      ctx.lineTo(right, y);
      ctx.stroke();
      ctx.restore();
    }
  }]
}

const ctx = document.getElementById('chartJSContainer').getContext('2d');
new Chart(ctx, options);
<body>
  <canvas id="chartJSContainer" width="600" height="400"></canvas>
  <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/Chart.js/3.8.0/chart.js"></script>
</body>

9👍

This is 2022, the current version of ChartJS is 4.0.1. So, I recommend to use this new implementation.

First, let’s define a plugin. ChartJS’s plugins has an id parameter, in this case less say corsair.

Then we define default variables for our plugin, like width, color and line dash. Additionally, our plugin will have three parameters: x, y, and draw. x and y are the values of the mousemove event and draw represents the inChartArea parameter, this parameter defines if the event occurred inside of the chart area or not.

Finally, we capture the afterDraw hook to draw a vertical and horizontal lines based on the x and y values if the event was triggered inside of the chart area.

ChartJS has various hooks to capture different parts of the chart render cycle.

const plugin = {
    id: 'corsair',
    defaults: {
        width: 1,
        color: '#FF4949',
        dash: [3, 3],
    },
    afterInit: (chart, args, opts) => {
      chart.corsair = {
        x: 0,
        y: 0,
      }
    },
    afterEvent: (chart, args) => {
      const {inChartArea} = args
      const {type,x,y} = args.event

      chart.corsair = {x, y, draw: inChartArea}
      chart.draw()
    },
    beforeDatasetsDraw: (chart, args, opts) => {
      const {ctx} = chart
      const {top, bottom, left, right} = chart.chartArea
      const {x, y, draw} = chart.corsair
      if (!draw) return

      ctx.save()
      
      ctx.beginPath()
      ctx.lineWidth = opts.width
      ctx.strokeStyle = opts.color
      ctx.setLineDash(opts.dash)
      ctx.moveTo(x, bottom)
      ctx.lineTo(x, top)
      ctx.moveTo(left, y)
      ctx.lineTo(right, y)
      ctx.stroke()
      
      ctx.restore()
    }
  }

const data = {
  labels: ["Red", "Blue", "Yellow", "Green", "Purple", "Orange"],
  datasets: [{
      label: '# of Votes',
      data: [12, 19, 3, 5, 2, 3],
      borderWidth: 1
    },
    {
      label: '# of Points',
      data: [7, 11, 5, 8, 3, 7],
      borderWidth: 1
    }
  ]
}
const options = {
  maintainAspectRatio: false,
  hover: {
    mode: 'index',
    intersect: false,
  },
  plugins: {
    corsair: {
      color: 'black',
    }
  }
}
  
const config = {
  type: 'line',
  data,
  options,
  plugins: [plugin],
}

const $chart = document.getElementById('chart')
const chart = new Chart($chart, config)
<div class="wrapper" style="width: 98vw; height: 180px">
  <canvas id="chart"></canvas>
</div>

<script src="https://unpkg.com/chart.js@4.0.1/dist/chart.umd.js"></script>

2👍

I have done exactly this (but vertical line only) in a previous version of one of my projects. Unfortunately this feature has been removed but the older source code file can still be accessed via my github.

The key is this section of the code:

Chart.defaults.LineWithLine = Chart.defaults.line;
Chart.controllers.LineWithLine = Chart.controllers.line.extend({
   draw: function(ease) {
      Chart.controllers.line.prototype.draw.call(this, ease);

      if (this.chart.tooltip._active && this.chart.tooltip._active.length) {
         var activePoint = this.chart.tooltip._active[0],
             ctx = this.chart.ctx,
             x = activePoint.tooltipPosition().x,
             topY = this.chart.legend.bottom,
             bottomY = this.chart.chartArea.bottom;

         // draw line
         ctx.save();
         ctx.beginPath();
         ctx.moveTo(x, topY);
         ctx.lineTo(x, bottomY);
         ctx.lineWidth = 0.5;
         ctx.strokeStyle = '#A6A6A6';
         ctx.stroke();
         ctx.restore();
      }
   }
});

Another caveat is that the above code works with Chart.js 2.8 and I am aware that the current version of Chart.js is 3.1. I haven’t read the official manual on the update but my personal experience is that this update is not 100% backward-compatible–so not sure if it still works if you need Chart.js 3. (But sure you may try 2.8 first and if it works you can then somehow tweak the code to make it work on 3.1)

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