Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for `xvals` / `yvals` in `hoveranywhere` and `clickanywhere` events by emilykl · Pull Request #7964 · plotly/plotly.js · GitHub

Closes #7816

Modify hoverdata and clickdata such that the xvals / yvals properties always contain data values (in the same form as the input data, i.e. may be strings in some cases) rather than calcdata values (which are always numeric).

Result:

For ordinary numeric axes (e.g. linear and log) this change has (essentially) no effect.
- Technically there is some validation that happens during c2d, but it's basically just checking that the values are numeric, and returning undefined if not
For date axes, xvals / yvals now contain date strings rather than numbers representing milliseconds. (This addresses the bug reported in [BUG]: hoveranywhere / clickanywhere return incorrect timestamps for date axes with local time zones #7816)
For category axes, xvals / yvals now contain strings corresponding to category names rather than numeric values.

The attribute descriptions for hoveranywhere / clickanywhere refer to xvals and yvals being "in data space", so I believe this was always the intended behavior.

Steps for testing

Check out this branch
Create the following HTML file in the repo root. This HTML page creates a plotly.js plot where the x-axis is a date axis and the y-axis is a category axis:

Details

<!doctype html>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>hoveranywhere / clickanywhere coordinates</title>
<script src="dist/plotly.js"></script>
<p>Open the console, then hover and click anywhere in the plot.</p>
<div id="gd" style="width:700px;height:400px"></div>
<script>
    var gd = document.getElementById('gd');

    // local midnight -> next local midnight, as in issue #7816
    var dayStart = new Date(2026, 4, 31);
    var dayEnd = new Date(2026, 5, 1);

    Plotly.newPlot(gd, [{
        x: [new Date(2026, 4, 31, 6), new Date(2026, 4, 31, 18)],
        y: ['b', 'c'],
        mode: 'markers',
        marker: {size: 12}
    }], {
        xaxis: {type: 'date', range: [dayStart, dayEnd]},
        yaxis: {type: 'category', categoryorder: 'array', categoryarray: ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']},
        hoveranywhere: true,
        clickanywhere: true,
        margin: {t: 20}
    });

    function log(name) {
        return function(d) {
            console.log(name, {
                xvals: d.xvals[0],
                yvals: d.yvals[0],
                'points[0].x': d.points[0] && d.points[0].x,
                'points[0].y': d.points[0] && d.points[0].y
            });
        };
    }

    gd.on('plotly_hover', log('hover'));
    gd.on('plotly_click', log('click'));
</script>

Run npm ci && npm run build
Open the HTML file in the browser, hover anywhere in the plot, and look at the console output. Note that xvals contains date strings and yvals contains a string matching a category (correct behavior)
Check out v4.0 and run npm ci && npm run build
Refresh the browser and note that xvals and yvals are now both numeric (incorrect behavior)

…ather than calcdata

Looks good and handles the issue well. I made a few comments.

Should arguments 2 and 3 be swapped? Or should layoutExtras be renamed to traceExtras?

Good catch, this got messed up. Updated to standardize to (gd, traceExtras, layoutExtras) arguments for both makePlot and makeDatePlot.

Maybe throw a breaking change notice in here?

Suggested change

      
            - Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for `xvals` / `yvals` in `hoveranywhere` and `clickanywhere` events [[#7964](https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/pull/7964)]
          
            - **Breaking**: Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for `xvals` / `yvals` in `hoveranywhere` and `clickanywhere` events [[#7964](https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/pull/7964)]

Could you also take look at updating the hand written TS types per this change?

Could you also take look at updating the hand written TS types per this change?

@camdecoster Just took a look, I don't think any updates are needed for this PR since xvals and yvals are type Datum[] which already covers both numbers and strings.

I think that comment was meant for #7966. This PR will require some type updates for xvals/yvals for the new multicategory shape that can be returned, but you can roll that into #7966 which will require other type updates.

emilykl added 2 commits August 13, 2026 18:28

switch xvals/yvals in hover/click data to return actual data values r…

5cc6516

…ather than calcdata

add/update jasmine tests

b919eb1

emilykl mentioned this pull request Aug 13, 2026

fix: correct date axis timezone in hoveranywhere/clickanywhere events #7818

Open

emilykl changed the title Hover click anywhere c2d 2 Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for xvals / yvals in hoveranywhere and clickanywhere events Aug 13, 2026

add draftlog

f0d860b

emilykl requested a review from camdecoster August 13, 2026 22:54

camdecoster approved these changes Aug 14, 2026

View reviewed changes

emilykl added 2 commits August 17, 2026 12:44

update draftlog

7761e5b

fix argument order in tests

b4ad58d

emilykl merged commit 589e642 into v4.0 Aug 18, 2026
85 checks passed

emilykl deleted the hover-click-anywhere-c2d-2 branch August 18, 2026 23:12

+              // the 300px-wide plot area spans exactly one day, so 0px is local midnight
+              // and 150px is local noon, in any timezone
+              function makeDatePlot(gd, layoutExtras) {
+                  return makePlot(gd, Lib.extendFlat({ xaxis: { type: 'date', range: [dayStart, dayEnd] } }, layoutExtras), {

Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for `xvals` / `yvals` in `hoveranywhere` and `clickanywhere` events by emilykl · Pull Request #7964 · plotly/plotly.js · GitHub

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Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for xvals / yvals in hoveranywhere and clickanywhere events - #7964

Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for xvals / yvals in hoveranywhere and clickanywhere events#7964
emilykl merged 5 commits into
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hover-click-anywhere-c2d-2

emilykl commented Aug 13, 2026 •
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		@@ -0,0 +1 @@
		- Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for `xvals` / `yvals` in `hoveranywhere` and `clickanywhere` events [[#7964](https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/pull/7964)]

	- Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for `xvals` / `yvals` in `hoveranywhere` and `clickanywhere` events [[#7964](https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/pull/7964)]
	- Breaking: Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for `xvals` / `yvals` in `hoveranywhere` and `clickanywhere` events [[#7964](https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/pull/7964)]

Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for `xvals` / `yvals` in `hoveranywhere` and `clickanywhere` events by emilykl · Pull Request #7964 · plotly/plotly.js · GitHub

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Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for xvals / yvals in hoveranywhere and clickanywhere events - #7964

Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for xvals / yvals in hoveranywhere and clickanywhere events#7964emilykl merged 5 commits intov4.0plotly/plotly.js:v4.0from hover-click-anywhere-c2d-2plotly/plotly.js:hover-click-anywhere-c2d-2Copy head branch name to clipboard

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Return actual data values (rather than calcdata values) for xvals / yvals in hoveranywhere and clickanywhere events#7964
emilykl merged 5 commits into
v4.0from
hover-click-anywhere-c2d-2

emilykl commented Aug 13, 2026 •
edited
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