---
name: chart-scrub-readout
description: A cursor/playhead scrubs an already-drawn chart — one driver moves a vertical tracking line and marker along a baked data polyline while a date/value tooltip steps through the data array; a second series can activate on cross. Deterministic data, readout writes only on index change.
metadata:
  tags: chart, scrub, readout, tooltip, tracking-line, data, cursor, playhead
---

# Chart Scrub Readout

The chart is already ON screen — this rule **interrogates** it. A vertical tracking line rides the scrub position, a marker dot follows the series, and a live tooltip reads out `date: value` per position, values flickering past like an odometer. It's the "this data is real — look closer" beat: the scrub proves the chart is an instrument, not a picture.

Boundary with its neighbors: [stat-bars-and-fills.md](stat-bars-and-fills.md) owns the chart's ARRIVAL; [counting-dynamic-scale.md](counting-dynamic-scale.md) owns a single number swelling in place. This rule assumes the graphic already exists and adds a **read head** moving across it. The three chain naturally: the line draws in (svg-path-draw / stat-bars), this rule scrubs it, and the landing value hands off to a count-up lockup.

## How It Works

1. **Data baked at setup** — a literal `DATA` array of `{ d, v }` points (or a pure index formula). The polyline's `points` attribute is computed ONCE from `DATA` by pure mapping functions: chart and readout share one source of truth. The argument of the shot is "this data is real" — a random walk regenerated per render breaks both determinism and the rhetorical claim.
2. **One driver tween** `p: 0 → 1` derives everything in its `onUpdate`: tracking-line x, marker x/y, tooltip position. Every output is a pure function of `p` — any seek lands the identical frame. Parallel tweens that merely share timing drift apart under rounding and read as chart chrome, not a read head.
3. **The marker rides the polyline** — its y interpolates between the two neighboring baked points, from the same arrays that built the chart; a separately-keyframed marker inevitably floats off the line.
4. **The readout is threshold-stepped** — the nearest data index derives from `p`, and `textContent` is written ONLY when that index changes (last-index guard). Transforms glide per frame (compositor-cheap); text steps per data point — no per-frame DOM text thrash. The guard is an optimization, not state: any seek recomputes the same index and the same text.

## Recipe

```html
<!-- inside a standard scene clip. Size the SVG so viewBox units === CSS pixels:
     one coordinate space serves the polyline, tracking line, marker, AND the HTML tooltip. -->
<div class="chart-wrap">
  <!-- position: relative — the tooltip transforms against this box -->
  <svg class="chart" viewBox="0 0 CHART_W CHART_H" width="CHART_W" height="CHART_H">
    <polyline id="series-a" class="series" fill="none" />
    <line id="track-line" y1="0" y2="CHART_H" stroke-dasharray="6 6" />
    <circle id="marker" r="MARKER_R" />
  </svg>
  <div class="tooltip" id="tooltip">
    <span id="tip-date">{firstDate}</span>
    <span id="tip-value">{firstValue}</span>
  </div>
</div>
```

```css
.tooltip {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  min-width: TIP_MIN_WIDTH; /* fixed — the box must not resize as values change length */
}
#tip-value {
  font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums; /* MANDATORY — digits flicker past; widths must not */
}
```

```js
// Data baked at setup — literal values.
const DATA = [
  { d: "{date1}", v: V1 },
  // ... N points, chronological ...
];

// Pure mapping functions — geometry derives from DATA once.
const PAD = CHART_PAD;
const PLOT_W = CHART_W - PAD * 2;
const PLOT_H = CHART_H - PAD * 2;
const vals = DATA.map((p) => p.v);
const V_MIN = Math.min(...vals);
const V_MAX = Math.max(...vals);
const X = (i) => PAD + (i / (DATA.length - 1)) * PLOT_W;
const Y = (v) => PAD + PLOT_H * (1 - (v - V_MIN) / (V_MAX - V_MIN));

document
  .getElementById("series-a")
  .setAttribute("points", DATA.map((p, i) => `${X(i)},${Y(p.v)}`).join(" "));

const line = document.getElementById("track-line");
const marker = document.getElementById("marker");
const tooltip = document.getElementById("tooltip");
const tipDate = document.getElementById("tip-date");
const tipValue = document.getElementById("tip-value");

// Tooltip pops in as the scrub begins — a small fromTo scale/opacity spring at SCRUB_AT.

// ONE driver — line, marker, and tooltip are all projections of p.
const scrub = { p: 0 };
let lastIdx = -1;
tl.to(
  scrub,
  {
    p: 1,
    duration: SCRUB_DUR,
    ease: SCRUB_EASE,
    onUpdate: () => {
      const f = scrub.p * (DATA.length - 1); // fractional index
      const i = Math.min(DATA.length - 2, Math.floor(f));
      const t = f - i;
      const x = X(i) + (X(i + 1) - X(i)) * t;
      const y = Y(DATA[i].v) + (Y(DATA[i + 1].v) - Y(DATA[i].v)) * t;

      // Transforms glide every frame (cheap, deterministic)
      line.setAttribute("x1", x);
      line.setAttribute("x2", x);
      marker.setAttribute("cx", x);
      marker.setAttribute("cy", y);
      tooltip.style.transform = `translate(${x + TIP_DX}px, ${y - TIP_DY}px)`;

      // Text steps only when the nearest data point changes
      const idx = Math.round(f);
      if (idx !== lastIdx) {
        tipDate.textContent = DATA[idx].d;
        tipValue.textContent = `${DATA[idx].v.toLocaleString()} {unitLabel}`;
        lastIdx = idx;
      }
    },
  },
  SCRUB_AT,
);
// End hold: the driver finishes before the scene does — the landed value reads.
```

## Variations

- **Peak stop** — the scrub is the wind-up, the landing is the stat: `SCRUB_EASE: "power3.out"` decelerates onto the final/peak point, then pop the emphasis at landing (`fromTo` marker `scale: 1 → PEAK_POP_SCALE` at `SCRUB_AT + SCRUB_DUR`). Pair with a pill tooltip that springs to its final label ([spring-pop-entrance.md](spring-pop-entrance.md)) — the classic "line breaks above the band" climax.
- **Second-series activation on cross** — series B sits dimmed; at `SCRUB_AT + SCRUB_DUR * CROSS_P` tween its stroke to the lit color (0.25s, `power2.out`), and in the driver's `onUpdate` read from B's array once `scrub.p ≥ CROSS_P` (still index-guarded). The color flip lands ON the cross — same-frame causality.
- **Two-chart glide** — two scrub beats: sweep chart A, glide the cursor/tooltip group across the gutter (a plain `x` tween, no readout — dead travel, not data), then chart B activates with its own driver. One driver per chart.
- **Cursor-led scrub** — an oversized cursor is the visible actor: another projection of the SAME driver (positioned from `x` in the same `onUpdate`, tip at the tracking line's head) — never a second tween that merely matches timing. Cursor look and click grammar from [cursor-click-ripple.md](cursor-click-ripple.md).
- **Playhead form** — no cursor; the tracking line IS the actor (timeline scrubbers, audio waves, session replays). `ease: "none"` — mechanical playback, not a hand.

## Values

| token                   | range / default               | notes                                                                                                                    |
| ----------------------- | ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| N (data points)         | 10–40                         | <10 reads as a slideshow; >40 blurs into texture. The flicker is the point — only first and final values must be legible |
| SCRUB_DUR               | 1.5–3s                        | shorter = confident sweep; longer = inspection. Leave ≥0.8s of scene after the driver ends so the landed value holds     |
| SCRUB_EASE              | `power1.inOut` default        | `"none"` playhead form; `power3.out` peak stop. Never `back.out` — a read head that overshoots and re-reads looks broken |
| CROSS_P                 | 0.55–0.75                     | earlier and A never establishes; later and B's readout has no time to live                                               |
| TIP_DX / TIP_DY         | 16–48px, up-and-right         | flip the sign near the chart's right edge so the tooltip never exits the frame                                           |
| MARKER_R / stroke width | r 6–12 / 4–8px                | the marker must dominate the line it rides                                                                               |
| TIP_MIN_WIDTH           | ≥ longest `date: value` state | without it the box breathes as digits change                                                                             |

## Critical Constraints

- **`DATA` is literal at setup**; polyline points derive from it via pure functions — chart and readout share one source of truth.
- **Seed at setup** — call the scrub applier once with `p = 0` right after building (à la `3d-camera-flight`'s `applyCamera()`), or a seek to t=0 before the driver runs shows the tracking line/marker at their HTML-default positions.
- **Single driver** — one `p` tween; all scrub outputs (line, marker, tooltip, any cursor) computed in its `onUpdate`, each a pure function of `p`.
- **Readout writes guarded by index change** — `onUpdate` stays O(1): a few attribute sets, one transform, text only on step.
- **SVG `viewBox` units = CSS pixels** (`viewBox="0 0 W H"` with matching `width`/`height`) — one coordinate space must serve the SVG internals and the HTML tooltip's transform.
- **`tabular-nums` + fixed `min-width`** on the tooltip value.
- **The chart pre-exists** — draw-in belongs to `svg-path-draw` / `stat-bars-and-fills`; sequence it BEFORE the scrub, don't blend them.
- **Land the read** — hold the final value ≥0.8s (or hand off to a count-up lockup).

## See also

`svg-path-draw` (the series draws in first) · `stat-bars-and-fills` (surrounding dashboard chrome) · `spring-pop-entrance` (peak dot + pill pop at the landing) · `counting-dynamic-scale` (closing stat lockup) · `cursor-click-ripple` / `context-sensitive-cursor` (the cursor-led form's actor) · `control-target-sync` (the sibling WRITE direction — there a control edits a target; here a scrub reads a dataset).
