Interactive Average

The plot below uses an interval selection, which causes the chart to include an interactive brush (shown in grey). The brush selection parameterizes the red guideline, which visualizes the average value within the selected interval.

Method syntax

import altair as alt
from vega_datasets import data

source = data.seattle_weather()
brush = alt.selection_interval(encodings=['x'])

bars = alt.Chart().mark_bar().encode(
    x='month(date):O',
    y='mean(precipitation):Q',
    opacity = alt.when(brush).then(alt.value(1)).otherwise(alt.value(0.7)),
).add_params(
    brush
)

line = alt.Chart().mark_rule(color='firebrick').encode(
    y='mean(precipitation):Q',
    size=alt.SizeValue(3)
).transform_filter(
    brush
)

alt.layer(bars, line, data=source)

Attribute syntax

import altair as alt
from vega_datasets import data

source = data.seattle_weather()
brush = alt.selection_interval(encodings=['x'])

bars = alt.Chart().mark_bar().encode(
    x='month(date):O',
    y='mean(precipitation):Q',
    opacity = alt.when(brush).then(alt.value(1)).otherwise(alt.value(0.7)),
).add_params(
    brush
)

line = alt.Chart().mark_rule(color='firebrick').encode(
    y='mean(precipitation):Q',
    size=alt.SizeValue(3)
).transform_filter(
    brush
)

alt.layer(bars, line, data=source)
# No channel encoding options are specified in this chart
# so the code is the same as for the method-based syntax.