Question

I’m new to d3.js and I”m trying to make a Pie-chart with it.
I have only one problem: I can’t get my labels outside my arcs…
The labels are positioned with arc.centroid

arcs.append("svg:text")
    .attr("transform", function(d) {
        return "translate(" + arc.centroid(d) + ")";
    })
    .attr("text-anchor", "middle")

Who can help me with this?

Answer 1

I can solve that problem – with trigonometry :).

See fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/nrabinowitz/GQDUS/

Basically, calling arc.centroid(d) returns an [x,y] array. You can use the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the hypotenuse, which is the length of the line from the center of the pie to the arc centroid. Then you can use the calculations x/h * desiredLabelRadius and y/h * desiredLabelRadius to calculate the desired x,y for your label anchor:

.attr("transform", function(d) {
    var c = arc.centroid(d),
        x = c[0],
        y = c[1],
        // pythagorean theorem for hypotenuse
        h = Math.sqrt(x*x + y*y);
    return "translate(" + (x/h * labelr) +  ',' +
       (y/h * labelr) +  ")"; 
})

The only downside here is that text-anchor: middle isn’t a great choice anymore – you’d be better off setting the text-anchor based on which side of the pie we’re on:

.attr("text-anchor", function(d) {
    // are we past the center?
    return (d.endAngle + d.startAngle)/2 > Math.PI ?
        "end" : "start";
})