ChartJS display legend - bar-chart

Question

I'm new in ChartJS and I have some problems with the legend. I have a simple bar chart with just 3 bars like:
<div class="x_panel">
<div class="x_title">
<h2>Bar graph</h2>
<ul class="nav navbar-right panel_toolbox" style="padding-left:5%">
<li>
<a class="collapse-link"><i class="fa fa-chevron-up"></i></a>
</li>
<li>
<a class="close-link"><i class="fa fa-close"></i></a>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="clearfix"></div>
</div>
<div class="x_content">
<canvas id="mybarChart"></canvas>
</div>
</div>
for which I'm trying to display the legend bellow the chart like in the attached image
var mybarChart = new Chart(ctx, {
type: 'bar',
data: {
labels: [],
datasets: [{
label: '# of Votes',
backgroundColor: "#000080",
data: [80]
}, {
label: '# of Votes2',
backgroundColor: "#d3d3d3",
data: [90]
},
{
label: '# of Votes3',
backgroundColor: "#add8e6",
data: [45]
}]
},
options: {
legend: {
display: true,
labels: {
fontColor: "#000080",
}
},
scales: {
yAxes: [{
ticks: {
beginAtZero: true
}
}]
}
}
});
But my displayed chart is empty :(
I've also tried displaying the legend by adding another div bellow the canvas and calling it by:
document.getElementById('barlegend').innerHTML = mybarChart.generateLegend();
with the same result :(
What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Based on the code that you supplied in your question, it looks like you forgot to add labels data in your chart data object. Without this information chartjs is not able to generate your axis and map each dataset data to it.
Also, since you mentioned you wanted the legend to be below the chart, I added the display: bottom option. Here is the working code.
var ctx = document.getElementById("mybarChart").getContext("2d");
var mybarChart = new Chart(ctx, {
type: 'bar',
data: {
labels: ['Votes'],
datasets: [{
label: '# of Votes',
backgroundColor: "#000080",
data: [80]
}, {
label: '# of Votes2',
backgroundColor: "#d3d3d3",
data: [90]
}, {
label: '# of Votes3',
backgroundColor: "#add8e6",
data: [45]
}]
},
options: {
legend: {
display: true,
position: 'bottom',
labels: {
fontColor: "#000080",
}
},
scales: {
yAxes: [{
ticks: {
beginAtZero: true
}
}]
}
}
});
Here is a working codepen example as well.

Answer 2

With the latest version of the chart.js (3.6.0), you can control the Legend display with the following code:
const options = {
plugins: {
...
legend: {
position: "right", // by default it's top
},
...
},
};
I know this has been here for so long but might help someone who faced the same issue as me in the future.