Common Mistakes

Avoid these pitfalls when creating DataGlass charts.

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YAML Syntax Errors

Tabs Instead of Spaces

Mistake: Using tabs for indentation

YAML requires spaces, not tabs. Use 2 spaces per indentation level.

# Wrong - uses tabs
data:
	file: sales.csv    # Tab character - will fail!

# Correct - uses spaces
data:
  file: sales.csv      # 2 spaces - works!

Fix: Configure your editor to insert spaces when you press Tab.

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Missing Quotes Around Special Characters

Mistake: Unquoted values with colons, brackets, or other special characters

# Wrong - colon breaks parsing
title: Sales: Q1 2024

# Correct - quoted string
title: "Sales: Q1 2024"

Special characters that need quotes: : { } [ ] , & * # ? | - < > = ! % @

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Incorrect Indentation

Mistake: Inconsistent or wrong indentation levels

# Wrong - data.file should be indented under data
data:
file: sales.csv

# Correct
data:
  file: sales.csv

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Data Issues

Field Names Don't Match

Mistake: Using field names that don't exist in your data

# Your CSV has: month,revenue,region
# But you wrote:
x: Month      # Wrong! Case-sensitive - should be "month"
y: sales      # Wrong! Field is called "revenue"

Fix: Check your CSV headers or JSON keys exactly.

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Empty or Invalid Data File

Mistake: File path is wrong or file is empty

data:
  file: data/sales.csv    # File doesn't exist!

Fix:

1. Check the file exists in your vault
2. Path is relative to vault root
3. File has content (not empty)

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JSON Syntax in Inline Data

Mistake: Invalid JSON in the source field

# Wrong - trailing comma
data:
  source: '[{"a": 1}, {"a": 2},]'

# Wrong - single quotes inside
data:
  source: "[{'a': 1}]"

# Correct
data:
  source: '[{"a": 1}, {"a": 2}]'

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Chart Configuration

Wrong Chart Type for Data

Mistake: Using a chart type that doesn't fit your data

Data Type	Good Charts	Bad Charts
Categories	bar, pie	line (misleading)
Time series	line, area	pie
Relationships	scatter	bar
Hierarchical	treemap, sunburst	line

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Missing Required Fields

Mistake: Forgetting x or y when required

# Wrong - pie needs x and y
type: pie
data:
  file: data.csv
# Missing x and y!

# Correct
type: pie
data:
  file: data.csv
x: category
y: value

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Color Field Doesn't Exist

Mistake: Referencing a color field that's not in your data

data:
  source: '[{"month": "Jan", "value": 10}]'
color: region    # "region" doesn't exist in the data!

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Performance Issues

Too Much Data

Mistake: Rendering thousands of points without optimization

# Slow - 50,000 rows rendered directly
data:
  file: huge-dataset.csv

Fix: Use transformations to aggregate or sample:

transformations:
  - type: sampling
    configuration:
      method: lttb
      targetSize: 1000

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Large Inline Data

Mistake: Embedding huge JSON in the code block

Fix: Use a file instead:

data:
  file: data/large-dataset.json

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Still Stuck?

1. Check the YAML syntax
2. Validate your data format
3. Try a minimal example first, then add complexity
4. Open an issue with your config