How to create Excel stacked area chart in C#, VB.NET?

3 mins read

This article explains how to create a stacked area chart in Excel using Syncfusion Excel (XlsIO) library.

What is stacked area chart?

Stacked Area charts are useful to show the trend of the contribution of each value over time or other category data in 2-D format.

Create Stacked Area Chart in Excel

Stacked Area Chart

To create a stacked area chart in Excel using XlsIO, you need to do the following steps.

Steps to create stacked area chart:

Step 1: Initialize chart

Create a chart object by calling the worksheet.Charts.Add method and specify the chart type to ExcelChartType.Area_Stacked enum value.

            //Create the chart
            IChartShape chart = worksheet.Charts.Add();
 
            //Set chart type to Area_Stacked
            chart.ChartType = ExcelChartType.Area_Stacked;

Step 2: 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;

Step 3: 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 = "Stacked Area Chart";
 
              //Set Legend
              chart.HasLegend = true;
              chart.Legend.Position = ExcelLegendPosition.Bottom;

Applicable properties for stacked area chart

Common property applicable for stacked area chart is

IsVarycolor (This property holds good for single series chart).
Note:
Applying other properties apart from the above 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.

Download Complete Sample

Download input file with data

To know more about creating charts with various settings using Syncfusion Excel (XlsIO) library, please refer the documentation.

The following C#/ VB.NET complete code snippet shows the creation of stacked area chart using XlsIO.

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_Stacked;
 
                //Assign data
                chart.DataRange = worksheet["A1:D6"];
                chart.IsSeriesInRows = false;
 
                //Apply chart elements
                //Set Chart Title
                chart.ChartTitle = "Stacked 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.NET

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_Stacked
 
                'Assign data
                chart.DataRange = worksheet("A1:D6")
                chart.IsSeriesInRows = False
 
                'Apply chart elements
                'Set Chart Title
                chart.ChartTitle = "Stacked 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

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