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Encyclopedia of Database Systems pp 2018–2024Cite as

Parallel Coordinates

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Synonyms

Parallel axes; Parallel Coordinates System (PCS); ∥ -coords; Multidimensional visualization; Parallel Coordinates Plot (PCP)

Definition

In the plane with xy-Cartesian coordinates N copies of the real line labeled X̄1, X̄2,...,X̄ N are placed equidistant and perpendicular to the x-axis. They are the axes of the multidimensional system of Parallel Coordinates all having the same positive orientation as the y-axis. An N-tuple, N-dimensional point, C = (c 1, c 2,...,c N ) is represented by the polygonal line C̄ whose N vertices are at the c i values on each X̄ i -axis as shown in Fig. 1. In this way, a 1–1 correspondence between points in N-dimensional space and polygonal lines with vertices on the parallel axes is established. In principle, a large number of axes can be placed and be seen parallel to each other. The representation of points is deceptively simple and much development with additional ideas is needed to enable the visualization of multivariate relationsor...

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Recommended Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Alfred Inselberg

Authors
  1. Alfred Inselberg
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

    LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Inselberg, A. (2009). Parallel Coordinates. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_262

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