How to create Excel area chart in C#, VB.NET?
This article explains how to create an Area chart in Excel using XlsIO.
What is an area chart?
Area charts visually represent the change in one or more quantities over time or other category data.
Area Chart Created using XlsIO
To create an area chart in Excel using XlsIO, you need to do the following steps.
Steps to create area chart
- Initialize chart
Create a chart object by calling the worksheet.Charts.Add method and specify the chart type to ExcelChartType.Area enum value.
//Create the chart IChartShape chart = worksheet.Charts.Add(); //Set chart type to Area chart.ChartType = ExcelChartType.Area;
- Assign data
Set a range of data from the worksheet to chart’s DataRange property. To plot the series values in column and categories in row, set chart’s IsSeriesInRows property to false.
//Set region of Chart data chart.DataRange = worksheet["A1:D6"]; //Set chart series in column for assigned data region chart.IsSeriesInRows = false;
- Apply basic chart elements
Add the basic elements like chart title and legend.
- ChartTitle of chart object.
- Set TRUE to chart’s HasLegend property, to show the legend.
//Apply chart elements //Set Chart Title chart.ChartTitle = "Area Chart"; //Set Legend chart.HasLegend = true; chart.Legend.Position = ExcelLegendPosition.Bottom;
Applicable properties for area chart
Common property applicable for area charts is
- IsVarycolor (This property holds good for single series chart and is available in IChartFormat ).
NOTE: Applying other properties apart from the mentioned property might throw exception or the changes will not be reflected in the output document because those properties are not related to area chart.
To know more about creating charts with various settings using XlsIO, please refer the documentation.
The following C#/ VB.NET complete code snippet shows the creation of area chart using XlsIO.
C#
using Syncfusion.XlsIO;
using System.Reflection;
using System.IO;
namespace ChartSample
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
using (ExcelEngine excelEngine = new ExcelEngine())
{
IApplication application = excelEngine.Excel;
application.DefaultVersion = ExcelVersion.Excel2016;
//Open existing workbook with data entered
Assembly assembly = typeof(Program).GetTypeInfo().Assembly;
Stream fileStream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("ChartSample.InputTemplate.xlsx");
IWorkbook workbook = application.Workbooks.Open(fileStream);
IWorksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];
//Initialize chart
IChartShape chart = worksheet.Charts.Add();
chart.ChartType = ExcelChartType.Area;
//Assign data
chart.DataRange = worksheet["A1:D6"];
chart.IsSeriesInRows = false;
//Apply chart elements
//Set Chart Title
chart.ChartTitle = "Area Chart";
//Set Legend
chart.HasLegend = true;
chart.Legend.Position = ExcelLegendPosition.Bottom;
//Positioning the chart in the worksheet
chart.TopRow = 8;
chart.LeftColumn = 1;
chart.BottomRow = 23;
chart.RightColumn = 8;
//Saving and closing the workbook
Stream stream = File.Create("Output.xlsx");
workbook.SaveAs(stream);
workbook.Close();
}
}
}
}
VB
Imports Syncfusion.XlsIO
Imports System.Reflection
Imports System.IO
Namespace ChartSample
Class Program
Public Shared Sub Main(ByVal args As String())
Using excelEngine As ExcelEngine = New ExcelEngine()
Dim application As IApplication = excelEngine.Excel
application.DefaultVersion = ExcelVersion.Excel2016
'Open existing workbook with data entered
Dim assembly As Assembly = GetType(Program).GetTypeInfo().Assembly
Dim fileStream As Stream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("ChartSample.InputTemplate.xlsx")
Dim workbook As IWorkbook = application.Workbooks.Open(fileStream)
Dim worksheet As IWorksheet = workbook.Worksheets(0)
'Initialize chart
Dim chart As IChartShape = worksheet.Charts.Add()
chart.ChartType = ExcelChartType.Area
'Assign data
chart.DataRange = worksheet("A1:D6")
chart.IsSeriesInRows = False
'Apply chart elements
'Set Chart Title
chart.ChartTitle = "Area Chart"
'Set Legend
chart.HasLegend = True
chart.Legend.Position = ExcelLegendPosition.Bottom
'Positioning chart in the worksheet
chart.TopRow = 8
chart.LeftColumn = 1
chart.BottomRow = 23
chart.RightColumn = 8
'Saving and closing the workbook
Dim stream As Stream = File.Create("Output.xlsx")
workbook.SaveAs(stream)
workbook.Close()
End Using
End Sub
End Class
End Namespace
