Discrete vs continuous diverging scales with d3-scale-chromatic

An example to ilustrate the difference of using d3.scaleThreshold vs d3.scaleSequential for creating discrete vs continuous diverging scales using d3.v4 and d3-scale-chromatic

See also sequential scales

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <script src="https://d3js.org/d3.v4.min.js"></script>
  <script src="https://d3js.org/d3-scale-chromatic.v1.min.js"></script>
  <style>
    body { margin:0;position:fixed;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;left:0; }
  </style>
</head>

<body>
  <script>
    // Background canvas for quick drawing of 2k lines
    var canvas = d3.select("body").append("canvas")
      .attr("width", 960)
      .attr("height", 500);
    var ctx = canvas.node().getContext("2d");
    //Translucent svg on top to show the axis
   	var svg = d3.select("body").append("svg")
    	.attr("width", 960)
      .attr("height", 500)
    	.style("position", "fixed")
    	.style("top", 0)
      .style("left", 0);

var x = d3.scaleLinear().domain([-1, 1]).range([20, 500]);
   	// Let's add an axis
    svg.append("g")
    	.attr("class", "axis")
    	.attr("transform", "translate(0, 50)")
    	.call(d3.axisTop(x));
    
    var steps = 5
    //Discrete diverging scale
    var color_threshold = d3.scaleThreshold()
    	.domain(d3.range(-1 + 2/steps, 1, 2/steps) ) //[-.6, -.2, .2, .6]
    	.range(d3.schemePuOr[steps]); //=> 5 colors in an array
    
    //Continuous diverging scale
    var color_sequential = d3.scaleSequential(d3.interpolatePuOr)
    	.domain([-1, 1]);
	
    // Let's draw 2000 lines on canvas for speed
		d3.range(-1, 1, 0.001)
      .forEach(function (d) {
        ctx.beginPath();
        ctx.strokeStyle = color_threshold(d);
        ctx.moveTo(x(d), 50);
        ctx.lineTo(x(d), 70);
        ctx.stroke();
      
        ctx.beginPath();      
        ctx.strokeStyle = color_sequential(d);
        ctx.moveTo(x(d), 80);
        ctx.lineTo(x(d), 100);      
        ctx.stroke();
      });

</script>
</body>

https://d3js.org/d3.v4.min.js

https://d3js.org/d3-scale-chromatic.v1.min.js