D3 stands for Data-Driven Documents. It's a Javascript library used to manipulate the DOM. From the website:
D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS D3 allows you to bind arbitrary data to a Document Object Model (DOM), and then apply data-driven transformations to the document. For example, you can use D3 to generate an HTML table from an array of numbers. Or, use the same data to create an interactive SVG bar chart with smooth transitions and interaction.
TL;DR – D3.js uses data to make things on the web, specifically using HTML, CSS, SVG and Javascript to make that happen.
IMPORTANT: D3 is NOT a chart library
- It can be used as a data and visualization library
- It can help you make charts, but its main goal is to utilize web technologies that already exist (HTML, CSS, SVG) in order to process and bind data to documents
Read the docs and more here!
Side note: What is SVG? SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics. SVG defines vector-based graphics for the web using point coordinates in XML code. SVG is what D3 uses to create and manipulate unique shapes and graphics on the web. Read more about SVG here.
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