Conditional Formatting
- 4 minutes to read
Use conditional formatting to highlight points in a Scatter Chart dashboard item.
Supported Format Rules
You can use the following data in rule calculations:
- measures from the X and Y axis sections
- measures from the Weight section
- dimensions from the Arguments section
- hidden measures
The following table lists available format rules and corresponding data types:
Data Type | Supported Format Rules |
|---|---|
numeric | |
string | Value with the condition type set to Equal To, Not Equal To or Text that Contains |
date-time |
A Date Occurring for dimensions with a continuous date-time group interval |
Refer to the following topic for more information about format condition types: Conditional Formatting Basics
Create and Edit a Format Rule
You can create and edit format rules in the following ways:
Click the Edit Rules button on the Home ribbon tab.
Click the measure/dimension menu button in the Data Item’s pane and select Add Format Rule/Edit Rules.
Refer to the following topic for information on how to create and edit format rules: Conditional Formatting in Windows Designer.
Format Condition Settings Specific to Scatter Charts
Specify appearance settings and set the condition’s value to create a format rule. Available settings depend on the selected format condition type.
The image below displays the Greater Than dialog (a Value format condition applied to a scatter chart). The condition colors bubbles if their values exceed 18.
If you enable Display in Legend, the chart shows information about the applied rule. Set the Caption field to specify the legend’s text. The image below displays the Scatter Chart item with the applied Greater Than format rule. The Display in Legend option is activated and the rule’s caption is displayed in the legend:
For Range format rules the legend display text is generated automatically and depends on the range intervals:
Coloring
A Scatter Chart item paints elements in pale gray if they do not meet the applied format condition. Note that this does not apply to elements that use the Hue color mode (the Dimension.ColoringMode property is set to Hue).
Select the Color by Hue option in a Data item’s pane to restore the color scheme.
Tip
Documentation: Scatter Chart - Coloring
Create a Format Rule in Code
To add a format rule, create a ScatterChartItemFormatRule object and specify its settings:
- Create a condition (a FormatConditionBase descendant), specify its settings, and assign it to the DashboardItemFormatRule.Condition property.
- Assign a data item (a measure/dimension) to the ChartItemFormatRuleBase.DataItem property. The data item’s value is used to calculate the condition.
- Add the format rule to the ScatterChartDashboardItem.FormatRules collection.
Set the ChartItemFormatRuleBase.ShowInLegend property to true to display a rule in a scatter chart’s legend. Use the ChartItemFormatRuleBase.DisplayName property to specify the rule’s caption that is displayed in a legend.
Example 1: Create a Value Format Rule
The following code snippet applies the Value format rule to the Scatter Chart dashboard item. The rule applies green to elements whose ExtendedPrice value exceeds 200,000.
public Form1() {
InitializeComponent();
ScatterChartDashboardItem scatterChart1 = (ScatterChartDashboardItem)dashboardDesigner1.Dashboard.Items["scatterChartDashboardItem1"];
AddFormatRulesToScatterChart(scatterChart1);
}
public void AddFormatRulesToScatterChart(ScatterChartDashboardItem scatterChart) {
ScatterChartItemFormatRule valueRule1 = new ScatterChartItemFormatRule();
valueRule1.DataItem = scatterChart.AxisYMeasure;
FormatConditionValue valueCondition1 = new FormatConditionValue(DashboardFormatCondition.Greater, 200000);
valueCondition1.StyleSettings = new ColorStyleSettings(Color.Green);
valueRule1.Condition = valueCondition1;
valueRule1.ShowInLegend = true;
valueRule1.DisplayName = "ExtendedPrice is greater than $200K";
scatterChart.FormatRules.Add(valueRule1);
}
Example 2: Create an Expression Format Rule
The following code snippet applies the Expression format rule to the Scatter Chart dashboard item. The rule colors elements if their corresponding X axis value exceeds 18 and Y axis value exceeds 7,000.
public Form1() {
InitializeComponent();
ScatterChartDashboardItem scatterChart1 = (ScatterChartDashboardItem)dashboardDesigner1.Dashboard.Items["scatterChartDashboardItem1"];
AddFormatRulesToScatterChart(scatterChart1);
}
public void AddFormatRulesToScatterChart(ScatterChartDashboardItem scatterChart) {
double unitCountThreshold = 7000;
double discountThreshold = 18;
ScatterChartItemFormatRule expressionRule1 = new ScatterChartItemFormatRule();
expressionRule1.DataItem = scatterChart.AxisYMeasure;
FormatConditionExpression formatCondition = new FormatConditionExpression();
formatCondition.Expression = $"{scatterChart.AxisYMeasure.UniqueId} > {unitCountThreshold} && {scatterChart.AxisXMeasure.UniqueId} > {discountThreshold}";
formatCondition.StyleSettings = new ColorStyleSettings(ColorTranslator.FromHtml("#14abb7"));
expressionRule1.Condition = formatCondition;
expressionRule1.ShowInLegend = true;
expressionRule1.DisplayName = "Discount amount from the quantity of products sold";
scatterChart.FormatRules.Add(expressionRule1);
}