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Use the Excel Export API to Specify Sparkline Axis Settings

  • 3 minutes to read

Horizontal Axis Options

Visibility

Set the XlSparklineGroup.DisplayXAxis property to true to display the horizontal axis on a sparkline. Use the XlSparklineGroup.ColorAxis property to specify the axis color.

Axis Type

A sparkline uses the general axis type by default - the axis is inferred from the data range, and data points are displayed at regular intervals. However, if the underlying data occurs at irregular periods, you can reflect these time intervals on a sparkline using the date axis type that changes the space between data markers proportionally to the time intervals. Assign the cell range containing date values for the required sparkline group to the XlSparklineGroup.DateRange property to change the axis type to date axis.

XlExportExamples_Sparklines_DateRange

View Example

// Create a group of line sparklines.
XlSparklineGroup group = new XlSparklineGroup(XlCellRange.Parse("B2:E7"), XlCellRange.Parse("F2:F7"));
// Specify the date range for the sparkline group. 
group.DateRange = XlCellRange.Parse("B1:E1");
// Set the sparkline weight.
group.LineWeight = 1.25;
// Display data markers on the sparklines.
group.DisplayMarkers = true;
sheet.SparklineGroups.Add(group);

Plotting Order

You can change the direction in which data is plotted in each sparkline of a sparkline group. Set the XlSparklineGroup.RightToLeft property to true to display data in reverse (right-to-left) direction.

Vertical Axis Options

You can specify how to calculate the minimum and maximum values for the vertical axis using one of the following options:

The example below demonstrates how to specify custom scaling values for a sparkline group’s vertical axis.

View Example

// Create a sparkline group.
XlSparklineGroup group = new XlSparklineGroup(XlCellRange.FromLTRB(1, 1, 4, 6), XlCellRange.FromLTRB(5, 1, 5, 6));
// Set the sparkline color.
group.ColorSeries = XlColor.FromTheme(XlThemeColor.Accent1, 0.0);
// Change the sparkline group type to "Column".
group.SparklineType = XlSparklineType.Column;
// Set the custom minimum value for the vertical axis.
group.MinScaling = XlSparklineAxisScaling.Custom;
group.ManualMin = 1000.0;
// Set the automatic maximum value for all sparklines in the group. 
group.MaxScaling = XlSparklineAxisScaling.Group;
sheet.SparklineGroups.Add(group);