Plot with different line style when clicked

Question

I have a plots with many lines and would like to be able to highlight lines when clicked (or on mouseover). When the data plotted is small this works well

styles = {Automatic, Automatic};
Dynamic@ListStepPlot[
  MapIndexed[
    EventHandler[#,
      {"MouseClicked" :> 
        (styles[[#2[[1]]]] = 
           styles[[#2[[1]]]] /. {Thick -> Automatic, Automatic -> Thick})}] &,
    {{1, 2, 3}, {2, 3, 5}}],
  PlotStyle -> styles]

But my data is large and including the complete ListStepPlot inside Dynamic makes it very slow.

So I tried this, but it didn't work:

styles = {Automatic, Automatic};
ListStepPlot[
  MapIndexed[
    EventHandler[#,
      {"MouseClicked" :> 
        (styles[[#2[[1]]]] = 
           styles[[#2[[1]]]] /. {Thick -> Automatic, Automatic -> Thick})}] &,
    {{1, 2, 3}, {2, 3, 5}}],
  PlotStyle -> Dynamic[styles]]

I know that Dynamic can be used for some Plot options values but apparently not for PlotStyle. Is there a way to make this work efficiently for large data sets?

Answer 1

Edit: more efficient and more flexible solution:

ListStepPlot[
    {{1, 2, 3}, {2, 3, 5}}, BaseStyle -> Thick
] /. {styles__, l_Line} :> DynamicModule[
    {edge = Thin}
  , {styles
    , Dynamic @ edge
    , MouseAppearance[
          EventHandler[
              l
            , "MouseClicked" :> (edge = edge /. {Thick -> Thin, Thin -> Thick} )
          ]
        , "LinkHand"
      ]
    }
 ]

---

Here is the old fix. Not the best as it doubles the size of the GraphicsBox:

ListStepPlot[
    {{1, 2, 3}, {2, 3, 5}}, BaseStyle -> Thick
] /. {styles__, l_Line} :> {
    styles
  , MouseAppearance[Dynamic@Mouseover[{Thin, l}, {Thick, l}], "LinkHand"]
}

Answer 2

Here's a way to do it by post-processing the Plot:

styleFloops =
  Map[RandomColor[] &, Range[2]];
styles =
  Map[Directive[ColorData[97][#], Thickness@Medium] &, Range[2]];
ListStepPlot[
  MapIndexed[
   EventHandler[#, {"MouseClicked" :> (styles[[#2[[1]]]] = 
         styles[[#2[[1]]]] /. {Thick -> Thickness@Medium, 
           Thickness@Medium -> Thick})}] &, {{1, 2, 3}, {2, 3, 5}}],
  PlotStyle ->
   styleFloops
  ] /.
 MapIndexed[
  Directive[a___, #, b___] :>
    Dynamic[Directive[a, styles[[First@#2]], b]] &,
  styleFloops
  ]

It works under the assumption that RandomColor will never be the Axes color and will never intersect. I think that's reasonable.

Answer 3

You can also use FlipView to flip through a list of styles on each mouse click:

styles = {Thin, AbsoluteThickness[3], Directive[Thick, Dashed]};

ListStepPlot[{{1, 2, 3}, {2, 3, 5}}] /. 
  l_Line :> MouseAppearance[FlipView @ Thread[{ styles, l}], "SampleStyle"] // Deploy