Ordinal Axis in Graphs

The ordinal axis of a graph shows ordered data, such as ratings or stages, or nominal data, such as different cities or different products. On a vertical bar graph, for example, the ordinal axis is the horizontal line across the bottom of the plot area. The values along the ordinal axis do not identify the extent of the data shown. Instead, the values identify the different groups in which the data belongs.

The ordinal axis appears on bar, line, area, combination, radar, and three-dimensional graphs. As with data axes, the ordinal axis has tick marks that locate the different items in the series, and it has tick labels that identify the different series items.

In three-dimensional graphs, a second ordinal axis is suggested, but the BI Beans graph does not expose a separate axis class for this axis. The graph does have classes for the tick labels and for a panel grid, which is analogous to a set of tick marks.

The following table shows the ordinal axis in the BI Beans graph and its related classes. It also shows tick labels and the panel grid for the suggested axis on a three-dimensional graph.

Axis Class

Tick Mark Class

Tick Label Class

Title Class

O1Axis

O1MajorTick;
X1PanelGrid (3-D graphs only)

O1TickLabel;
X1TickLabel
(3-D graphs only)

O1Title;
X1Title
(3-D graphs only)

implied second ordinal axis, for series

ZPanelGrid (3-D graphs only)

ZTickLabel (3-D graphs only

ZTitle (3-D graphs only

Testing for support of the O1Axis

You can test for the O1Axis before you call any of its methods, by calling the isO1AxisSupported method of the Graph class, as shown in the following example.


if (graph.O1AxisSupported()){ Color axisColor = graph.getO1Axis().getLineColor(); // other code that you might add has been omitted here }

Data Axes in Graphs
Time Axis in Graphs