This chapter covers
- Manipulating nodes and link datasets
- Drawing an adjacency matrix
- Creating an arc diagram
- Running a simulation with the d3-force layout
- Applying positioning, collision, centering, many-body, and link forces
Network analysis and network visualizations are standard now in the age of social networks and big data. They are particularly interesting because they focus on how things are related and represent systems more accurately than the traditional flat data seen in more common data visualizations. While in the hierarchical visualizations (discussed in chapter 11), a node can have many children but only one parent, networks present the possibility of many-to-many connections.
In general, when dealing with networks, you refer to the things being connected (e.g., people) as nodes and the connections between them (e.g., following someone on X, formerly Twitter) as edges or links. Networks may also be referred to as graphs because that’s what they’re called in mathematics. They can represent many different data structures, such as transportation networks and linked open data.