Directives

Directives allow precise control over all aspects of your visualization

Directives can be added to your SQL source code, or with the visual Directives Editor. See the reference of the various available Directives

Directives in SQL Code

-- @chart: column
-- @title: Column - Basic Column Chart
-- @subtitle: An example column chart showing sales by month
-- @formats: currency
SELECT 
	TRUNC(date_closed, 'MONTH') as Month,
	sum(amount) as Sales
FROM sales
GROUP BY TRUNC(date_closed, 'MONTH')
ORDER BY TRUNC(date_closed, 'MONTH') ASC

Directives are specified as a SQL comment (any line starting wtih --) followed by '@' symbol and the directive name, followed by a colon:

-- @chart: Line

Directives Editor

From any open SQL script, you can visually edit the directives. This allows you play with different directives. When you change directives in the editor, they are automatically updated in the SQL source code.

A screenshot of the directives visual editor

Directive Comments

When developing, sometimes you may wish to quickly toggle on/off the directive without removing it from your source code. ChartSQL supports "directive comments" which will disable that directive.

You comment a directive by adding two forward slashed directly before the @ symbol

-- @chart: column
-- @title: Directive Comments
-- @subtitle: An example of commenting out a directive
-- @formats: currency
-- @series: Sales
-- //@baselines: Sales
SELECT 
	TRUNC(date_closed, 'MONTH') as Month,
	sum(amount) as Sales
FROM sales
GROUP BY TRUNC(date_closed, 'MONTH')
ORDER BY TRUNC(date_closed, 'MONTH') ASC;

An example chart that has @baselines defined but it is commented out