The information in this article applies to:
- Standard and Professional Editions of Microsoft Visual Basic for
Windows, version 3.0
- Microsoft Excel, version 5.0
SUMMARY
This article demonstrates how to insert data into a Microsoft Excel
version 5.0 worksheet and create a chart by using OLE automation in a
Visual Basic application.
MORE INFORMATION
There are five key points you need to keep in mind when creating an Excel
chart in a Visual Basic program:
- A chart can be either on a Worksheet or a Chart sheet.
- A chart on a Worksheet is a ChartObject.
- A ChartObject has a Chart property, which is a Chart Object.
- The data associated with the Chart is part of the SeriesCollection.
- You can add a new data series with a Named Range.
NOTE: Complete definitions for these objects can be found in the Excel
documentation.
A Workbook has a Charts collection, which is the collection of all Chart
sheets in the workbook. All Charts on WorkSheets are part of that
WorkSheet's ChartObjects collection. Therefore to add a new Chart to a
Worksheet, you can use the Add method on the worksheet’s ChartObject
collection.
The SeriesCollection property of the Chart object contains the reference to
the data linked to the table. In the example below, you'll add two data
series -- each of which contains 10 data points -- by using the Add method
on the SeriesCollection object.
Although the example passes the Range of cells containing the data as a
named range, you could specify a Range in R1C1 notation.
Steps to Create Example Program
- Start a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.
- Add a command button (Command1) to Form1.
- Add the following code to the Command1_Click event procedure:
Sub Command1_Click()
Dim objXLsheet As Object ' Object reference to Excel Worksheet
Dim objRange1 As Object ' First series in the chart
Dim objRange2 As Object ' Second series in the chart
Dim objChart1 As Object ' Object reference to the chart we create
Dim iRow As Integer ' Index variable for the current Row
Dim iCol As Integer ' Index variable for the current Row
Dim strTmpRange As String ' Temporarily hold Range in R1C1 notation
Const cNumCols = 10 ' Number of points in each Series
Const cNumRows = 2 ' Number of Series
' Create a Worksheet Object:
Set objXLsheet = CreateObject("Excel.Sheet")
Randomize Timer
' Insert Random data into Cells for the two Series:
For iRow = 1 To cNumRows
For iCol = 1 To cNumCols
objXLsheet.Cells(iRow, iCol).Value = Int(Rnd * 50) + 1
Next iCol
Next iRow
' Insert Named Ranges:
For iRow = 1 To cNumRows
'VB3Line: Enter the following lines as one line
strTmpRange = "R" & iRow & "C" & Format$(1) & ":R" & iRow &
"C" & Format$(cNumCols)
'VB3Line: Enter the following lines as one line
objXLsheet.Parent.Names.Add "Range" & Format$(iRow),
"=Sheet1!" & strTmpRange
Next iRow
' Add a ChartObject to the worksheet:
Set objChart1 = objXLsheet.ChartObjects.Add(100, 100, 200, 200)
' Assign the Ranges created above as the individual series
' for the chart:
For iRow = 1 To cNumRows
objChart1.Chart.SeriesCollection.Add "Range" & Format$(iRow)
Next iRow
' Make Excel Visible:
objXLsheet.application.Visible = True
DoEvents
' Save the Worksheet to disk. The parent of a WorkSheet is WorkBook.
objXLsheet.Parent.SaveAs "C:\VB\XLCHART.XLS"
' Close this instance of Excel:
objXLsheet.application.Quit
End Sub
- Press the F5 key to run the program, and click the command button.
At this point, Excel starts, and it loads and displays the worksheet with
the newly-created chart. If you don’t already have a file name as specified
on the jXLSheet.Parent.SaveAs line of code, Excel saves the file and closes
itself down. If you already have a file with the same name, Excel brings up
a dialog asking you if you would like to overwrite the existing file.
Keywords : IAPOLE vbwin GnrlVb kbprg kbfasttip
Technology : kbole kbvba
Version : WINDOWS:3.00
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto