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+# Pure CSS Bar Graphs with Graceful Mobile Fallbacks
+
+2020-12-08
+
+I recently published a new open source project, <a target="_blank" href="https://flexbox-bar-graphs.netlify.app/">Flexbox Bar Graphs</a>, and wanted to share a simple breakdown of how it was built. It isn't anything mind-blowing, but I like the idea of placing bar graphs in a web page with *zero* Javascript.
+
+So in the end, this is what our bar graphs will look like on desktop:
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="/public/images/flexbox-bar-graph-1.webp" alt="Flexbox Bar Graph">
+    <figcaption>The flexbox bar graph in desktop view (<a href="/public/images/flexbox-bar-graph-1.webp">direct link to image</a>)</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+And this is how it will look on smaller devices:
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="/public/images/flexbox-bar-graph-2.webp" alt="Flexbox Bar Graph Table">
+    <figcaption>The flexbox bar graph on mobile devices (<a href="/public/images/flexbox-bar-graph-2.webp">direct link to image</a>)</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+Let's get into the details!
+
+## The HTML
+
+The main "secret" of this project is that our graphs are constructed out of HTML *tables*. Now before you freak out - this is perfectly fine and works in our favor quite well.
+
+1. If the user has JS disabled --> they will still see our graphs
+2. If the user has CSS disabled --> they will see a standard data table set
+
+All bases are covered!
+
+
+    <!-- Using a basic table with our custom data-id -->
+    <table data-id="flexbox-bar-graph">
+        <caption>Web Performance Results</caption>
+        <thead>
+            <tr>
+                <th>Test Performed</th>
+                <th>Before</th>
+                <th>After</th>
+                <th>Difference</th>
+            </tr>
+        </thead>
+        <tbody>
+            <tr>
+                <th>Initial Load Time</th>
+                <td>
+                    <!--
+                        WTF are these CSS variables?
+                        See the CSS section below
+                    -->
+                    <span style="--data-set:4.7/5;"></span>
+                    <p>4.7</p>
+                </td>
+                <td>
+                    <span style="--data-set:2.7/5;"></span>
+                    <p>2.7</p>
+                </td>
+                <td>
+                    <span style="--data-set:2/5;"></span>
+                    <p>2</p>
+                </td>
+            </tr>
+        </tbody>
+    </table>
+
+
+Nothing crazy is happening here - just your standard HTML table structure. The one main thing to notice is the `--data-set` CSS variable placed inline on each data point. This will be important for our CSS to configure the individual bar graphs properly.
+
+## The CSS
+
+This might look overwhelming if I just dumped the whole CSS file in one big code block, so instead I'm going to break them down into two parts:
+
+1. Baseline styling (mobile)
+2. Desktop styling
+
+### Baseline
+
+Here we target just our table elements with the `data-id` of `flexbox-bar-graph`. This allows us to avoid worrying about adding classes or IDs and also avoids conflicts with other non-graph styled tables in our projects.
+
+The base `:root` element holds all of our bar graph colors. Change these as you see fit!
+
+
+    /* Bar Graph color variables */
+    :root {
+        --bar-color-1: #357EC7;
+        --bar-color-2: #E42217;
+        --bar-color-3: #4CC417;
+        --bar-color-4: #7D0541;
+        --bar-color-5: #FFD801;
+    }
+
+    [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] {
+        border-collapse: collapse;
+        margin: 4rem 0 6rem;
+        width: 100%;
+    }
+    [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] caption {
+        text-align: left;
+    }
+    [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] thead th {
+        text-align: right;
+    }
+    [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] thead th:nth-child(1),
+    [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody th {
+        text-align: left;
+    }
+    [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody th {
+        font-weight: normal;
+        font-style: italic;
+    }
+    [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody td {
+        text-align: right;
+    }
+    [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody td p {
+        margin: 0;
+    }
+
+
+### Desktop
+
+Now we set your "visual" bar graphs to show at a set width (in this example it is 1000px and above). That way the "default" styling can target the mobile device screen sizes.
+
+- The `thead tr th:nth-child(x):before` elements create the square "legends" beside each individual data point heading
+- The `tbody tr td:nth-of-type(x) span` elements are the bars themselves
+
+
+    @media(min-width: 1000px) {
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] {
+            background: transparent;
+            display: block;
+            min-height: 400px;
+            padding: 0;
+            position: relative;
+            width: 100%;
+        }
+    
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] caption {
+            display: block;
+            font-size: 2rem;
+            text-align: center;
+            width: 100%;
+        }
+    
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] thead {
+            display: block;
+            margin: 2rem 0 3rem;
+            width: 100%;
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] thead tr {
+            border-bottom: 1px solid lightgrey;
+            display: flex;
+            justify-content: center;
+            padding-bottom: 1rem;
+        }
+    
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] thead tr th {
+            display: inline-block;
+            margin: 0;
+            padding: 0;
+            position: relative;
+            text-align: right;
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] thead tr th:before {
+            content:'';
+            display: inline-block;
+            height: 10px;
+            margin: 0 0.5rem 0 2rem;
+            position: relative;
+            width: 10px;
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] thead tr th:nth-child(1),
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] thead tr th:nth-child(1):before {
+            display: none;
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] thead tr th:nth-child(2):before {
+            background: var(--bar-color-1);
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] thead tr th:nth-child(3):before {
+            background: var(--bar-color-2);
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] thead tr th:nth-child(4):before {
+            background: var(--bar-color-3);
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] thead tr th:nth-child(5):before {
+            background: var(--bar-color-4);
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] thead tr th:nth-child(6):before {
+            background: var(--bar-color-5);
+        }
+    
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody {
+            display: flex;
+            justify-content: space-between;
+            min-height: 300px;
+            width: 100%;
+        }
+    
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody tr {
+            display: flex;
+            flex-direction: column-reverse;
+            flex-wrap: wrap;
+            justify-content: flex-end;
+            padding: 0 50px;
+            position: relative;
+            width: 100%;
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody tr th {
+            font-size: 90%;
+            position: absolute;
+            text-align: center;
+            top: 100%;
+            width: calc(100% - 100px);
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody tr td {
+            align-items: center;
+            display: flex;
+            flex-direction: column;
+            height: 95%;
+            justify-content: flex-end;
+        }
+    
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody tr td span {
+            display: block;
+            height: calc(var(--data-set) * 100%);
+            width: 20px;
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody tr td:nth-of-type(1) span {
+            background: var(--bar-color-1);
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody tr td:nth-of-type(2) span {
+            background: var(--bar-color-2);
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody tr td:nth-of-type(3) span {
+            background: var(--bar-color-3);
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody tr td:nth-of-type(4) span {
+            background: var(--bar-color-4);
+        }
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody tr td:nth-of-type(5) span {
+            background: var(--bar-color-5);
+        }
+    
+        [data-id="flexbox-bar-graph"] tbody tr td p {
+            font-size: 90%;
+            margin: 0;
+            text-align: center;
+        }
+    }
+
+
+## Bonus Styling
+
+In the <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/bradleytaunt/flexbox-bar-graphs">Flexbox Bar Graph</a> repo, I've also included the ability to display these bar graphs horizontally, like so:
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="/public/images/flexbox-bar-graph-3.webp" alt="Flexbox Bar Graph Horizontal">
+    <figcaption>The flexbox bar graph in the horizontal layout (<a href="/public/images/flexbox-bar-graph-3.webp">direct link to image</a>)</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+The change in CSS is actually quite simple to pull this off - you just need to include the `data-layout` attribute on the table itself.
+
+
+    [data-layout="horizontal"] tbody {
+        min-height: auto;
+    }
+    
+    [data-layout="horizontal"] tbody tr {
+        flex-direction: column;
+        padding: 0 40px;
+    }
+    [data-layout="horizontal"] tbody tr th {
+        width: calc(100% - 80px);
+    }
+    
+    [data-layout="horizontal"] tbody tr th {
+        text-align: left;
+        top: calc(100% + 20px);
+    }
+    
+    [data-layout="horizontal"] tbody tr td {
+        flex-direction: row;
+        height: auto;
+        justify-content: start;
+        margin: 10px 0;
+    }
+    
+    [data-layout="horizontal"] tbody tr td span {
+        height: 20px;
+        width: calc(var(--data-set) * 100%);
+    }
+    
+    [data-layout="horizontal"] tbody tr td p {
+        margin-left: 10px;
+    }
+
+
+## That's All Folks!
+
+That just about sums things up. Feel free to check out the Github repo itself, open any issues you find or fork it for your own!
+
+- Github: <a href="https://github.com/bradleytaunt/flexbox-bar-graphs">https://github.com/bradleytaunt/flexbox-bar-graphs</a>
+- Live Demo: <a href="https://flexbox-bar-graphs.netlify.app/">https://flexbox-bar-graphs.netlify.app/</a>
+