Is it possible to set custom attributes of SVG objects as number and not as string?

Question

I am assigning artificial attributes to a SVG-G element (SVG group object). I move the group with its content with SVG transformations and I store the x/y coordinates of the group and its width/height in those attributes.

I am using the D3 Javascript library and the call :

embeddedElemContainer = nodeBoxContainer.append('svg:g')
    .attr('x', x)
    .attr('y', y)
    .attr('width', width)
    .attr('height', height)

results in following object :

<g transform="translate(13.585786437626904,31.585786437626904)" x="13.585786437626904" y="31.585786437626904" width="43.00000000000001" height="0"></g>

This is Ok, the only ting bothering me is the fact, that the attribute values are stored as string. If I want to use them for some computation, I am forced to cast.

parseInt(@embeddedElemContainer.attr('x'))

Is there a way to store those values directly as integer/double ?

Answer 1

The normal approach in D3 is to have lists of data that are bound to nodes. See the data portion of the Selection API. D3 puts this in the __data__ property of the DOM nodes that it creates/modifies. Internally D3 pulls out that property and passes it as a parameter to various functions, but you can certainly access it yourself directly.

It's also possible to associate an arbitrary data structure to a single node via the Datum method.

Without the rest of the context it's hard to say, but below is a modified version of what I think you are trying to do:

var vis = d3.select("body").append("svg").attr("width", 400).attr("height", 300);

var groupData = {x: 100, y:100, height: 50, width: 50, theanswer : 42, thecolor: "blue", somedouble: 45.1651654 };

var embeddedElemContainer = vis.append('svg:g')
    .datum( groupData )
    .attr( 'id', 'mygroup' )
    .attr( 'x', function(d) { return d.x; } )
    .attr( 'y', function(d) { return d.y; } )
    .attr( 'height', function(d) { return d.height; } )
    .attr( 'width', function(d) { return d.width; } )

// the regular DOM way:
console.log(document.getElementById('mygroup').__data__)

// the D3 way:
console.log( d3.select('#mygroup').datum() );

Both console.log statements output:

height: 50
somedouble: 45.1651654
theanswer: 42
thecolor: "blue"
width: 50
x: 100
y: 100