 | In Introduction to Charts and Chart Types and How to Create a Chart, we gave a brief introduction of the types of charts and charting objects offered by Aspose.Cells, and described how to create one.
In this article, we discuss how to customize the appearance of charts by setting a number of different properties: |
Setting Chart Area
There are different kinds of areas in a chart and Aspose.Cells provides the flexibility of modifying the appearance of each area. Developers can apply different formatting settings on an area by changing its foreground color, background color and fill format etc.
In the example given below, we have applied different formatting settings on different kinds of areas of a chart. These areas include:
- Plot area
- Chart area
- SeriesCollection area
- The area of a single point in an SeriesCollection
Code Example
//Instantiating a Workbook object Workbook workbook = new Workbook(); WorksheetCollection worksheets = workbook.getWorksheets(); //Obtaining the reference of the newly added worksheet by passing its sheet index Worksheet worksheet= worksheets.get(0); Cells cells = worksheet.getCells(); //Adding a sample value to "A1" cell cells.get("A1").setValue(50); //Adding a sample value to "A2" cell cells.get("A2").setValue(100); //Adding a sample value to "A3" cell cells.get("A3").setValue(150); //Adding a sample value to "B1" cell cells.get("B1").setValue(60); //Adding a sample value to "B2" cell cells.get("B2").setValue(32); //Adding a sample value to "B3" cell cells.get("B3").setValue(50); //Adding a chart to the worksheet ChartCollection charts = worksheet.getCharts(); //Accessing the instance of the newly added chart int chartIndex = charts.add(ChartType.COLUMN,5,0,15,5); Chart chart = charts.get(chartIndex); //Adding NSeries (chart data source) to the chart ranging from "A1" cell SeriesCollection nSeries = chart.getNSeries(); nSeries.add("A1:B3",true); //Setting the foreground color of the plot area ChartFrame plotArea = chart.getPlotArea(); Area area = plotArea.getArea(); area.setForegroundColor(Color.getBlue()); //Setting the foreground color of the chart area ChartArea chartArea = chart.getChartArea(); area = chartArea.getArea(); area.setForegroundColor(Color.getYellow()); //Setting the foreground color of the 1st NSeries area Series aSeries = nSeries.get(0); area = aSeries.getArea(); area.setForegroundColor(Color.getRed()); //Setting the foreground color of the area of the 1st NSeries point ChartPointCollection chartPoints =aSeries.getPoints(); ChartPoint point = chartPoints.get(0); point.getArea().setForegroundColor(Color.getCyan()); //Save the workbook workbook.save("book1.xls");
After executing the above example code, a column chart will be added to the worksheet as shown below:
Column chart with filled areas
Setting Chart Lines
Developers can also apply different kinds of styles on the lines or data markers of the SeriesCollection as shown below in the example.
Code Examples
//Applying a dotted line style on the lines of an NSeries Series aSeries = nSeries.get(0); Line line = aSeries.getLine(); line.setStyle(LineType.DOT); //Applying a triangular marker style on the data markers of an NSeries aSeries.setMarkerStyle(ChartMarkerType.TRIANGLE); //Setting the weight of all lines in an NSeries to medium aSeries = nSeries.get(1); line = aSeries.getLine(); line.setWeight(WeightType.MEDIUM_LINE);
After executing the above example code, a column chart will be added to the worksheet as shown below:
Column chart after applying line styles
Applying Microsoft Excel 2007/2010 Themes to Charts
Developers can apply different Microsoft Excel themes and colors to the SeriesCollection or other chart objects as shown in the example below.
Code Example
//Specify the Excel file path String filePath = "e:\\test2\\SourceBook1.xlsx"; //Instantiate the workbook to open the file that contains a chart Workbook workbook = new Workbook(filePath); //Get the first worksheet Worksheet worksheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(0); //Get the first chart in the sheet Chart chart = worksheet.getCharts().get(0); //Specify the FilFormat's type to Solid Fill of the first series chart.getNSeries().get(0).getArea().getFillFormat().setType(FillType.SOLID); //Get the CellsColor of SolidFill CellsColor cc = chart.getNSeries().get(0).getArea().getFillFormat().getSolidFill().getCellsColor(); //Create a theme in Accent style cc.setThemeColor(new ThemeColor(ThemeColorType.ACCENT_6, 0.6)); //Apply the them to the series chart.getNSeries().get(0).getArea().getFillFormat().getSolidFill().setCellsColor(cc); //Save the Excel file workbook.save(filePath + ".out.xlsx");
Setting the Titles of Charts or Axes
You can use Microsoft Excel to set the titles of a chart and its axes in a WYSIWYG environment as shown below.
Setting titles of a chart & its axes using Microsoft Excel
Aspose.Cells also allows developers to set the titles of a chart and its axes at runtime. All charts and their axes contain a Title.setText method that can be used to set their titles as shown below in an example.
Code Example
//Setting the title of a chart Title title = chart.getTitle(); title.setText("Title"); //Setting the font color of the chart title to blue Font font = title.getTextFont(); font.setColor(Color.getBlue()); //Setting the title of category axis of the chart Axis categoryAxis = chart.getCategoryAxis(); title = categoryAxis.getTitle(); title.setText("Category"); //Setting the title of value axis of the chart Axis valueAxis = chart.getValueAxis(); title = valueAxis.getTitle(); title.setText("Value");
After executing the above example code, a column chart will be added to the worksheet as shown below:
Column chart after setting titles
Setting Major Gridlines
Hiding Major Gridlines
Developers can control the visibility of major gridlines by using the setVisible method of the MajorGridlines object.
Code Example
//Hiding the major gridlines of value axis Axis valueAxis = chart.getValueAxis(); Line majorGridLines = valueAxis.getMajorGridLines(); majorGridLines.setVisible(false);
After hiding the major gridlines, a column chart added to the worksheet will have the following appearance:
Column chart with hidden major gridlines
Changing Major Gridlines Settings
Developers cannot only control the visibility of major gridlines but also other properties including its color etc.
Code Example
//Setting the color of major gridlines of value axis to silver
Axis categoryAxis = chart.getCategoryAxis();
categoryAxis.getMajorGridLines().setColor(Color.getSilver());
After setting the color of major gridlines, a column chart added to the worksheet will have the following appearance:
Column chart with colored major gridlines
Setting Borders for Back and Side Walls
Since the release of MS Excel 2007, the walls of a 3D chart have been divided into two parts: side wall and back wall, so we have to use two Wall objects to represent them separately and you can access them by using Chart.getBackWall() and Chart.getSideWall().
In the example given below, you may find how to set the border of the side wall by using different attributes.
Code Example
//Get the side wall border line Line sideLine = chart.getSideWall().getBorder(); //Make it visible sideLine.setVisible(true); //Set the solid line sideLine.setStyle(LineType.SOLID); //Set the line width sideLine.setWeight(10); //Set the color sideLine.setColor(Color.getBlack());