I have a c# RangeBar chart with about 25 labels on the AxisX. Depending on my live data, some of these labels have visible data points in the chart. Typically about 3/4 of the 25 labels don't have any data points. All horizontal gridlines are enabled, which makes the chart a bit cluttered. Especially for data points that are further away on the AxisY, it's difficult to distinguish at a glance to what label on the AxisX they belong.
My idea is to differentiate the AxisX labels that have visible data points either by giving their gridline a different color, a different style, or to completely remove gridlines of AxisX labels that have no corresponding data points. Is this even possible? Because all controllable properties and documentation I have found so far is regarding gridline styles of the entire chart.
Btw: Only showing AxisX labels that have data points is not an option.
Thanks in advance.
To reduce clutter you could use the axis.Interval property.
But each line will still have the same style, either of major or of the minor lines.
You could add VerticalLineAnnotations for selected points or try StripLines. Both can be styled freely.
Here is an example of a normal line chart, with lines randomly added to a few points:
The same result can be achieved by either Annotations or Striplines. The blue lines are StripLine and the red ones Annotations. Here are two functions to add a colored line to a DataPoint:
void AddStripLine(Chart chart, ChartArea ca, DataPoint dp, Color col)
{
Axis ax = ca.AxisX;
StripLine sl = new StripLine();
sl.BorderColor = col;
sl.IntervalOffset = dp.XValue;
sl.Interval = 0;
sl.StripWidth = 0;
sl.BorderWidth = 1;
ax.StripLines.Add(sl);
}
If you look very closely you'll see that the only visual difference is that the former are below, the latter above all other chart elements.
void AddAnnotation(Chart chart, ChartArea ca, DataPoint dp, Color col)
{
Axis ay = ca.AxisY;
VerticalLineAnnotation vl = new VerticalLineAnnotation();
vl.LineColor = col;
vl.AnchorDataPoint = dp;
vl.IsInfinitive = true;
vl.LineWidth = 1;
vl.Height = ay.Maximum - ay.Minimum;
vl.ClipToChartArea = ca.Name;
chart.Annotations.Add(vl);
}
For Bar charts use HorizontalLineAnnotations and anchor to the correct axis...
Using Annotatons is in fact the more natural way, since each is an individual object. StripLines are too, but are repeated at intervals . To avoid visible repetiton each needs to have suitable offsets and intervals to be determined for each. But it isn't hard to do either way.
Also note that the both types of lines lines are anchored to their DataPoints and will move with them e.g. when chart is resized..
Related
I have a gantt chart contrains tasks.
I declared the PointWidth as 0.25
GanttChart.Series["Tasks"]["PointWidth"] = "0.25";
this works good when I have few tasks but whenever I have more tasks the pointWidth (range) becomes smaller and smaller!
I want to keep it 0.25 and to put scrollbar when there are many tasks.
The CustomProperty PointWidth is in percent of the visible axis.
So with one point the bar or column is really fat and the more data points you add the thinner they will get.
If you want to keep a fixed width while changing the number of data points you need to use PixelPointWidth instead.
Note however that by default now the bars/columns get closer and closer to each other until the overlap.
To give them enough room and show scollbars instead, you need to enable the built-in zooming mechanism as MSChart will not use normal Scrollbars.
This should help:
Series s = chart1.Series[0];
s.SetCustomProperty("PixelPointWidth", "12"); // 12 pixels
var ca = chart1.ChartAreas[0];
ca.AxisX.ScrollBar.Enabled = true;
ca.AxisX.ScaleView.Size = 30; // show a value range of 30
chart1.Refresh(); // usally not needed, but we change a custom property
Note that the ScaleView.Size is in data values. This is the 3rd of the three coordinate system in the chart: percentages, pixels and values! Very powerful and rather tricky..
I have created a chart in the image below and I need to insert in addition to the existing labels, the end labels on the extreme left and right of the x-axis. There are numerous datapoints and therefore I cannot set the interval to 1 for the labels as they'll clutter the axis. I have already tried setting the property
chartHistory.ChartAreas[0].AxisX.LabelStyle.IsEndLabelVisible = true;
but it doesn't seem to work. How can I achieve this?
You may try:
chartHistory.ChartAreas[0].AxisX.IsMarginVisible = true;
chartHistory.ChartAreas[0].AxisX.LabelStyle.IsEndLabelVisible = true;
Or probably you will have to add the labels yourself,
you can either use DataPoint.AxisLabel:
chartHistory.Series[0].Points[0].AxisLabel = "5/4/2010";
or more flexibly:
chartHistory.Series[0].Points[0].AxisLabel =
System.DateTime.FromOADate(chartHistory.Series[0].Points[0].XValue).ToShortDateString();
(and the same for the last point in series)
or you can add a custom label to the AxisX control:
chartHistory.ChartAreas[0].AxisX.CustomLabels.Add(0, 20, "5/4/2010");
See also this answer and this answer.
My chart has a Datetime type X Axis and Double type Y Axis. I am trying to use the following code to insert the scalebreakstyle feature but it is not working. Does anyone have sample code for it. I was trying the web.UI code but did not work. Also I set the color of 2 series the same it keeps making them different.
/
/ Enable scale breaks.
chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisY.ScaleBreakStyle.Enabled = true;
// Show scale break if more than 25% of the chart is empty space.
chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisY.ScaleBreakStyle.CollapsibleSpaceThreshold = 25;
// Set the line width of the scale break.
chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisY.ScaleBreakStyle.LineWidth = 2;
// Set the color of the scale break.
chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisY.ScaleBreakStyle.LineColor = Color.Red;
// If all data points are significantly far from zero, the chart will calculate the scale minimum value.
chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisY.ScaleBreakStyle.StartFromZero = StartFromZero.Auto;
// Set the spacing gap between the lines of the scale break (as a percentage of the Y-axis).
chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisY.ScaleBreakStyle.Spacing = 2;
www.tinypic.com/r/6e2c83/5
Scale breaks will not work under a wide array of conditions. According to the documentation any of the following causes scale breaks to be "not supported", which I have found means they will not work at all or they will warp your graph in weird ways
•Pie, doughnut, funnel, pyramid, radial or any stacked chart types are used.
•Custom intervals for labels, tick marks or grid lines are enabled.
•The minimum or maximum value for the axis is set.
•Custom labels are used.
•A logarithmic Y-axis is specified.
•Axis views on the Y-axis, which include scrolling and zooming, are used.
•3-D charts are used.
It looks like you maybe have a custome x axis label which would cause the scale break to fail.
How does one set the alignment of text within a chart legend object? I've tried using:
myChartName.Legends["mySeriesName"].Alignment = stringAlignment.Near
With no effect. I've also tried to create custom legend items, again resulting in no effect. Text is ALWAYS centered (along with the series marker) in the legend "box". The only text I have been able to align is the title, but I don't need titles in my application.
My research to date says the legend object is basically a table with (by default) two cells. If that is the case there should be a way to access those cells and manipulate them as table cells. So, what gives? Why can't I access the text alignment properties of the legend object? Clearly, there is something I'm missing, but for the life of me I can't seem to figure this out. Quite frustrating.
Problem solved. The CustomItem approach wasn't working either, so I tried using the LegendCellColumn Class.
I changed the LegendStyle from Column to Row, then added two CellColumns, one for the series symbol and one for the legend text. Set the alignment, margins, and column widths (that turned out to be the trick), and voila; a legend that looks like I want. Here's the code for anyone with a similar issue.
chartSel.Legends[ySeries.Name].CellColumns.Add(new LegendCellColumn("", LegendCellColumnType.SeriesSymbol, ""));
chartSel.Legends[ySeries.Name].CellColumns[0].Alignment = ContentAlignment.TopLeft;
chartSel.Legends[ySeries.Name].CellColumns[0].Margins = new System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.Margins(0, 0, 1, 1);
chartSel.Legends[ySeries.Name].CellColumns[0].MinimumWidth = 250;
chartSel.Legends[ySeries.Name].CellColumns[0].MaximumWidth = 250;
chartSel.Legends[ySeries.Name].CellColumns.Add(new LegendCellColumn("", LegendCellColumnType.Text, ySeries.Name));
chartSel.Legends[ySeries.Name].CellColumns[1].Alignment = ContentAlignment.MiddleLeft;
chartSel.Legends[ySeries.Name].CellColumns[1].Margins = new System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.Margins(0, 0, 1, 1);
chartSel.Legends[ySeries.Name].CellColumns[1].MinimumWidth = 1500;
chartSel.Legends[ySeries.Name].CellColumns[1].MaximumWidth = 1500;
It's probably not the most efficient way to do it, but it works. Technically, the legend symbol and text are still centered in the object, but because I'm forcing the widths of the two columns it has the appearance of being left-justified.
Hopefully, this may help another newbie like me avoid days of consternation.
My understanding is that Legend alignment relates to the Docking property, not really how the text is aligned within the legend. So setting Alignment to Near means positioning the legend box near the Docking direction.
It is quite hard to explain this textually. The MS Chart Samples have a subsection named Chart features -> Legends -> Style and Auto Positioning which will help you play with those two properties and understand how they are meant to work.
For inner legend alignment, you may need to use Legend.CustomItems and define LegendCell individually.
chart.Legends["Default"].CustomItems.Clear();
chart.Legends["Default"].CustomItems.Add(new LegendItem("LegendItem", Color.Red, ""));
chart.Legends["Default"].CustomItems[0].Cells.Add(new LegendCell(LegendCellType.Text, "My text", ContentAlignment.MiddleLeft));
This is described inside the Chart features -> Legends -> Legend Cells section of the samples.
While continuing to try to figure this out I stumbled on this tidbit of info from the following MSDN library page:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd456711(v=vs.100).aspx
"NOTE: You cannot adjust the individual legend items and cells in the Chart.Legends collection. To adjust them, use custom legend items."
So, back to the CustomItem route. I've got this code gleaned from several sources (including you, Dominique, thanks):
chartSel.Legends.Add(ySeries.Name);
chartSel.Series[ySeries.Name].IsVisibleInLegend = false;
chartSel.Legends[ySeries.Name].CustomItems.Clear();
LegendItem li = new LegendItem();
li.ImageStyle = LegendImageStyle.Line;
li.Cells.Add(LegendCellType.SeriesSymbol, "", ContentAlignment.TopLeft);
li.Cells[0].BackColor = Color.CornflowerBlue; //color is only to see the cell bounds
li.Cells.Add(LegendCellType.Text, ySeries.Name, ContentAlignment.TopLeft);
li.Cells[1].BackColor = Color.Aquamarine; //color is only to see the cell bounds
chartSel.Legends[ySeries.Name].CustomItems.Add(li);
From what I can find it should work, but it doesn't. It results in a legend object with two cells; the first is empty and the second has left-justified text. I tried to post an image of it, but the system says I'm not yet worthy.
Why there is no line for the series symbol is also a mystery, but that's another problem to solve. The text justification issue is my main concern at the moment. It looks like the text within the cells is left-justified as desired, but the cells themselves are centered in the legend object; not what I wanted. I want those cells to be left-justified in the object too, so the first cell is against the left edge of the legend object.
Ideas?
I have made bar diagram with horizontal lines, it works fine, and a combobox where the users can change to a pie chart, with sort of work, when the user change to pie chart it works fine, but when change back from the pie chart to the bar chart, only the bars come, not the title, the x-asis tick, they axis tick nor the custom labels for the y axis.
I have search the net, and tried the following lines
myPane.YAxis.Scale.IsVisible=true;
myPane.XAxis.Scale.IsVisible=true;
myPane.XAxis.Scale.Min = 0;
myPane.XAxis.Scale.Max = 30;
myPane.YAxis.Scale.Min = 0;
myPane.YAxis.Scale.Max = 9;
myPane.Legend.IsVisible = true;
but it only shows the bars there and nothing else. it works fine, if the bars diagram is made before, and without shift to the pie-chart
Found a solution, finally.
Making a rectangle for prooper size
RectangleF rc=new RectangleF();
rc.X=0;
rc.Y=0;
rc.Width=zgc.Width;
rc.Height=zgc.Height;
Make a new graph rather than a new masterpane
zgc.GraphPane=new GraphPane(rc,"title","x - axis","y-axis");
Link the new pane
myPane=zgc.GraphPane;
That worked for me, now I get the corect size, and all values and ticks.