Circle Packing with d3.pack

d3.pack() nests circles: leaf areas follow the values, siblings are placed by Wang et al.'s front-chain algorithm, and each parent is the smallest circle enclosing its children plus padding. Here, units sold:

Units sold packed as circles within shelves (sample data)HTML
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/d3@7.9.0/dist/d3.min.js"></script>
<script src="booknest-sales.js"></script><script src="booknest-prep.js"></script>
<script src="booknest-tree.js"></script>
<svg width="720" height="225" font-family="Arial" font-size="11" text-anchor="middle"></svg>
<script>
  const root = d3.pack().size([400, 400]).padding(4)
    (catalogTree(prepareSales(SALES), b => b.units).sort((a, b) => b.value - a.value));
  const node = d3.select('svg').selectAll('g')
    .data(root.descendants().filter(d => d.depth % 2)).join('g')          // shelves, books
    .attr('transform', d => `translate(${d.x + 160},${d.y - 80})`);
  node.append('circle').attr('r', d => d.r)
    .attr('fill', d => d.children ? '#eceff1' : d.data.color);
  node.append('text').attr('y', d => d.children ? -d.r - 5 : -2)     // shelf names on top
    .attr('fill', d => d.children ? '#263238' : 'white').selectAll('tspan')
    .data(d => d.children ? [nodeName(d)] : [d.data.key, d.value]).join('tspan')
    .attr('x', 0).attr('dy', (t, i) => i * 13).text(t => t);
</script>
Browser output of Listing 6.39
Browser output of 39

Packing wastes space, but the nesting reads at a glance. Compare by area: The Clockmaker's Paradox sold 2.7 times Summit's 454 units, yet its circle is only 1.6 times as wide.

Circle packing of units sold: books inside their shelves, areas proportional to the valueHTMLLive
<!doctype html>
<style>
  body { margin: 0; padding: 8px; background: #fafaf7; font: 11px system-ui, sans-serif; color: #263238; }
  svg { width: 100%; max-width: 600px; display: block; }
</style>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/d3@7.9.0/dist/d3.min.js"></script>
<svg viewBox="0 0 600 300" font-size="11" text-anchor="middle"></svg>
<p id="out">Hover a circle.</p>
<script>
  // BookNest sample data, invented for these examples (not real sales)
  const SALES = (() => {
    const books = [
      { id: 1, key: 'harbor', title: 'The Quiet Harbor', author: 'Elena Marsh', genre: 'Fiction', color: '#1f5f8b', price: 18.99, rating: 4.6 },
      { id: 2, key: 'deepweb', title: 'Patterns of the Deep Web', author: 'Ravi Menon', genre: 'Technology', color: '#5b3f99', price: 39.5, rating: 4.3 },
      { id: 3, key: 'saffron', title: 'Salt and Saffron', author: 'Leila Haddad', genre: 'Cooking', color: '#e09a10', price: 24, rating: 4.8 },
      { id: 4, key: 'summit', title: 'Small Steps to Big Summits', author: 'Tom Okafor', genre: 'Self-Help', color: '#3f7d3a', price: 14.99, rating: 4.1 },
      { id: 5, key: 'clock', title: "The Clockmaker's Paradox", author: 'Iris Vale', genre: 'Science Fiction', color: '#b5452f', price: 16.2, rating: 4.5 },
      { id: 6, key: 'glass', title: 'Gardens in Glass', author: 'June Park', genre: 'Gardening', color: '#2a9d8f', price: 22.5, rating: 4.4 },
    ];
    const units = {        // units sold per month, January 2025 to August 2026
      1: [40, 47, 46, 47, 57, 51, 46, 54, 60, 60, 71, 111, 52, 42, 49, 56, 59, 48, 53, 51],
      2: [40, 37, 35, 41, 48, 43, 40, 42, 50, 53, 53, 84, 42, 35, 38, 41, 45, 41, 46, 46],
      3: [46, 45, 41, 46, 53, 49, 46, 45, 60, 51, 63, 100, 48, 48, 49, 48, 53, 49, 48, 52],
      4: [100, 80, 72, 70, 66, 66],                    // released March 2026
      5: [48, 47, 54, 52, 65, 55, 57, 58, 64, 66, 75, 124, 58, 49, 59, 56, 63, 57, 54, 57],
      6: [31, 30, 28, 35, 31, 32, 29, 30, 41, 36, 45, 64, 31, 30, 30, 38, 40, 38, 36, 38],
    };
    const months = d3.utcMonths(new Date('2025-01-01'), new Date('2026-09-01')).map(d3.utcFormat('%Y-%m'));
    const sales = books.flatMap(b => units[b.id].map((n, i) =>
      ({ month: months[i + months.length - units[b.id].length], book: b.id, units: n })));
    const ratings = [[4, 8, 20, 87, 293], [6, 10, 22, 95, 147], [2, 3, 8, 45, 342], [2, 3, 8, 24, 28],
      [4, 8, 20, 90, 228], [4, 7, 20, 82, 147]].map((counts, i) => ({ book: i + 1, counts }));  // 1 to 5 stars
    const regions = [{ id: '826', name: 'United Kingdom', units: 1480 }, { id: '276', name: 'Germany', units: 1120 },
      { id: '250', name: 'France', units: 760 }, { id: '372', name: 'Ireland', units: 540 },
      { id: '528', name: 'Netherlands', units: 410 }, { id: '724', name: 'Spain', units: 320 }];
    const links = [[5, 1, 38], [1, 3, 24], [2, 5, 18], [3, 6, 21], [4, 1, 12], [2, 6, 9], [4, 3, 15], [5, 6, 14]]
      .map(([source, target, value]) => ({ source, target, value }));   // customers who bought both
    return { books, sales, ratings, regions, links };
  })();
  // prepareSales(raw): parsed dates, sales linked to book objects, revenue and totals
  function prepareSales(raw) {
    const parse = d3.utcParse('%Y-%m'), books = raw.books.map(b => ({ ...b }));
    const byId = d3.index(books, b => b.id);
    const sales = raw.sales.map(s => ({ date: parse(s.month), book: byId.get(s.book),
      units: s.units, revenue: s.units * byId.get(s.book).price }));
    for (const [book, rows] of d3.group(sales, s => s.book)) {
      book.units = d3.sum(rows, s => s.units);
      book.revenue = d3.sum(rows, s => s.revenue);
    }
    const months = d3.rollups(sales, v => ({ units: d3.sum(v, s => s.units),
      revenue: d3.sum(v, s => s.revenue) }), s => +s.date).map(([t, v]) => ({ date: new Date(t), ...v }))
      .sort((a, b) => a.date - b.date);
    const ratings = raw.ratings.map(r => ({ ...r, book: byId.get(r.book) }));
    return { ...raw, books, sales, months, ratings };
  }
  // catalogTree(data, value): shelf → genre → book, as a d3.hierarchy summed by value
  const SHELF = { Fiction: 'Novels', 'Science Fiction': 'Novels' };   // the rest: Nonfiction
  function catalogTree(data, value = b => b.revenue) {
    const nest = d3.group(data.books, b => SHELF[b.genre] ?? 'Nonfiction', b => b.genre);
    return d3.hierarchy(nest)                    // a Map becomes the entry [undefined, map]
      .sum(d => d.id ? value(d) : 0)             // only books (the leaves) carry a value
      .sort((a, b) => b.height - a.height || b.value - a.value);
  }
  const nodeName = n => n.depth === 0 ? 'BookNest' : n.children ? n.data[0] : n.data.title;

  const root = d3.pack().size([290, 270]).padding(6)
    (catalogTree(prepareSales(SALES), b => b.units).sort((a, b) => b.value - a.value));
  const svg = d3.select('svg');
  const node = svg.append('g').attr('transform', 'translate(5,24)').selectAll('g')
    .data(root.descendants().filter(d => d.depth % 2)).join('g')       // shelves and books
    .attr('transform', d => `translate(${d.x},${d.y})`);
  node.append('circle').attr('r', d => d.r).attr('fill', d => d.children ? '#eceff1' : d.data.color)
    .attr('stroke', d => d.children ? '#b0bec5' : null);
  node.append('text').attr('y', d => d.children ? -d.r - 5 : -2)
    .attr('fill', d => d.children ? '#263238' : 'white').attr('font-weight', d => d.children ? 'bold' : null)
    .selectAll('tspan').data(d => d.children ? [nodeName(d)] : [d.data.key, d.value]).join('tspan')
    .attr('x', 0).attr('dy', (t, i) => i * 13).text(t => t);
  node.on('pointerenter', (e, d) => d3.select('#out').text(`${nodeName(d)}: ${d.value} units, r = ${d.r.toFixed(1)} px`));

  // Compare by area, not width: a side panel shows why
  const leaves = root.leaves().sort((a, b) => b.value - a.value);
  const side = svg.append('g').attr('transform', 'translate(330,20)').attr('text-anchor', 'start');
  side.append('text').attr('font-weight', 'bold').text('value ratio vs. width ratio (to Summit)');
  const summit = leaves.find(l => l.data.key === 'summit');
  side.selectAll('text.r').data(leaves).join('text').attr('class', 'r').attr('y', (d, i) => 24 + i * 20)
    .attr('fill', d => d.data.color)
    .text(d => `${d.data.key}: ${(d.value / summit.value).toFixed(2)}× units, ${(d.r / summit.r).toFixed(2)}× width`);
</script>