[Tex/LaTex] Drawing a trend line on a bar chart

bar chartpgfplots

For the MWE below:

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage[left=2.5cm,right=2cm,top=2cm,bottom=2cm]{geometry}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{pgfplots}


\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[H]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[xmode=normal,ymode=log,
ybar,
scaled y ticks = true,
grid=both,
minor y tick num=5,
ylabel={Elapsed Time (in hours)},
xlabel={Number of Constraints},
width=1*\textwidth,
height=9cm,
bar width=3.5pt,
symbolic x coords={3,4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35
},
xtick=data,
ymin=0
%nodes near coords,
%nodes near coords align={vertical},
]

\addplot [fill=red]
coordinates {(3,38.9575) (4,166.897) (6,53.63835) (7,39.6594) (8,82.1631) (9,40.22045) (10,37.2932) (11,131.62625) (12,472.6995) (13,149.837) (14,113.445) (15,108.474) (16,155.24455) (17,95.41392) (18,186.819) (19,153.383) (20,313.361) (21,180.1305) (22,401.3485) (23,1621.092) (24,1929.3) (25,899.283) (26,726.926) (27,1624.4) (28,870.348) (29,979.472) (30,869.418) (31,274.83) (32,1945.87) (33,1359.09) (34,891.24) (35,1625.31)     };
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{The Elapsed Time vs. The Number of Constraints for the Halving Method}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

How can I draw a trend line on top of the bar chart ? By trend line I mean a line that touches to the top point of each bar on the chart.

Best Answer

You can put your data in a table to reuse it (I did via a couple of find/replace ops). I can't see how to generate the symbolic x coords from the first column (though I remember doing it). I've put also the smooth and line join options to make the line less obstructive. 

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage[left=2.5cm,right=2cm,top=2cm,bottom=2cm]{geometry}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotstableread{
3 38.9575
4 166.897
6 53.63835
7 39.6594
8 82.1631 
9 40.22045 
10 37.2932 
11 131.62625 
12 472.6995 
13 149.837 
14 113.445 
15 108.474 
16 155.24455
17 95.41392
18 186.819 
19 153.383
20 313.361
21 180.1305 
22 401.3485 
23 1621.092
24 1929.3
25 899.283 
26 726.926 
27 1624.4 
28 870.348 
29 979.472
30 869.418
31 274.83 
32 1945.87
33 1359.09
34 891.24
35 1625.31
}\mytable

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[H]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[xmode=normal,ymode=log,
scaled y ticks = true,
grid=both,
minor y tick num=5,
ylabel={Elapsed Time (in hours)},
xlabel={Number of Constraints},
width=1*\textwidth,
height=9cm,
symbolic x coords={3,4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35},
xtick=data,
ymin=0
]

\addplot [fill=red,ybar,bar width=3.5pt] table[header=false] {\mytable};
\addplot [ultra thick,orange,line join=round,smooth] table[header=false] {\mytable};

    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{The Elapsed Time vs. The Number of Constraints for the Halving Method}
\end{figure}

\end{document}

enter image description here

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