Charts communicate ideas with simplicity, clarity, and detail.

Once you're comfortable with D3 you can quickly:

* understand key metrics at a glance
* catch anomalies (before they turn into problems)
* give key insights to your customers
* and impress your boss and co-workers

Today, I will show you the exact methods I use to create beautiful, understandable data visualizations using D3.

The Fullstack D3 masterclass is the complete guide to D3. With dozens of code examples showing each step, you will gain new insights into your data by creating visualizations in this self-paced online course.

Fullstack D3 Masterclass

---
title: "Access data"
description: "Next, we grab our data and create our accessor function (only one this time!)"
useMdx: true
privateVideoUrl: https://fullstack.wistia.com/medias/501qj8w08x
codeFolder: course/module_02/lesson_02.01/protected/code/03-making-a-bar-chart/end
---

# Chart checklist

To start, let's look over our chart-making checklist to remind ourselves of the necessary steps.

1.  **Access data**
2.  **Create dimensions**
3.  **Draw canvas**
4.  **Create scales**
5.  **Draw data**
6.  **Draw peripherals**
7.  **Set up interactions**

We'll breeze through most of these steps, reinforcing what we've already learned.

# Access data

<CodeSandboxEmbed
  src="//codesandbox.io/s/bk5nn?fontsize=14&hidenavigation=1&theme=dark&autoresize=1&module=/chart.js"
  style={{width: '100%', height: '35em'}}
/>

Next, we grab our data and create our accessor function (only one this time!)