Spreadsheet Chart Overview

• Apr 15, 2021
• 4 minutes to read

The WinForms Spreadsheet control allows you to create charts. Use charts to analyze large amounts of data and show relationships between different data sets.

The Spreadsheet control uses DevExpress WinForms Charts to render charts. Chart types and layouts are compatible with those of Microsoft® Excel®.

The following section contains examples that demonstrate how to create and modify a chart in code: Spreadsheet Chart Examples. You can insert a chart into a worksheet that contains chart data or create a standalone chart on a chart sheet.

Note

You can also embed small charts (or sparklines) in worksheet cells. Refer to the following section for details on how to create sparkline groups of different types and define their appearance: Sparklines.

End users can select a chart on the Insert tab in the Charts group.

Supported Chart Types

Chart Type	Chart Subtypes
Column Charts	2-D Column Charts: Clustered Column Stacked Column 100% Stacked Column 3-D Column Charts: 3-D Clustered Column 3-D Stacked Column 3-D 100% Stacked Column 3-D Column Cylinder Charts: Clustered Cylinder Stacked Cylinder 100% Stacked Cylinder 3-D Cylinder Cone Charts: Clustered Cone Stacked Cone 100% Stacked Cone 3-D Cone Pyramid Charts: Clustered Pyramid Stacked Pyramid 100% Stacked Pyramid 3-D Pyramid
Line Charts	2-D Line Charts: Line Stacked Line 100% Stacked Line Line with Markers Stacked Line with Markers 100% Stacked Line with Markers 3-D Line Charts: 3-D Line
Pie Charts	2-D Pie Charts: Pie Exploded Pie 3-D Pie Charts: 3-D Pie 3-D Exploded Pie
Doughnut Charts	Doughnut Exploded Doughnut
Bar Charts	2-D Bar Charts: Clustered Bar Stacked Bar 100% Stacked Bar 3-D Bar Charts: 3-D Clustered Bar 3-D Stacked Bar 3-D 100% Stacked Bar Cylinder Charts: Clustered Horizontal Cylinder Stacked Horizontal Cylinder 100% Stacked Horizontal Cylinder Cone Charts: Clustered Horizontal Cone Stacked Horizontal Cone 100% Stacked Horizontal Cone Pyramid Charts: Clustered Horizontal Pyramid Stacked Horizontal Pyramid 100% Stacked Horizontal Pyramid
Area Charts	2-D Area Charts: Area Stacked Area 100% Stacked Area 3-D Area Charts: 3-D Area 3-D Stacked Area 3-D 100% Stacked Area
Scatter Charts	Scatter Scatter with Smooth Lines and Markers Scatter with Smooth Lines Scatter with Straight Lines and Markers Scatter with Straight Lines
Bubble Charts	Bubble 3-D Bubble
Stock Charts	High-Low-Close Open-High-Low-Close Volume-High-Low-Close Volume-Open-High-Low-Close
Radar Charts	Radar Radar with Markers Filled Radar
Excel 2016 Charts	Box and Whisker Waterfall Histogram Pareto Funnel Sunburst Treemap

Chart Elements

The following image displays chart elements:

• Chart Area - contains an entire chart and all its elements.
• Plot Area - a chart area that displays data series, axes, gridlines, and data labels.
• Data Point - a single value plotted on a chart.
• Data Series - a group of related data points. Each data series has a unique color to distinguish between individual series on a chart with multiple series.
• Horizontal and Vertical Axes - two perpendicular lines that run along the chart edges. Axes display category labels and measurement units. Most charts have two axes: the category axis (X-axis) that usually runs horizontally at the bottom of the plot area, and the value axis (Y-axis) that runs vertically on the plot area’s left side. 3-D charts also have the depth (series) axis that displays series names. Bubble and scatter charts have two value axis. Pie and doughnut charts have no axes at all.
• Legend - identifies each data series with a color or fill pattern. A chart can have only one legend.
• Chart Title - a text header that explains a chart’s purpose.
• Axis Title - explanatory text used to label an axis.
• Data Label - identifies a data point with its actual value.
• Gridlines - a series of horizontal and vertical lines that run across the plot area. You can add gridlines to a chart to improve its readability.

You can add and remove chart elements, as described in these topics: Create and Modify a Chart Programmatically and Spreadsheet Chart Examples.

End users can use commands on the Chart Tools contextual tab to apply one of the predefined chart layouts or manually select elements to display on a chart.

• Select a predefined chart layout

  

• Show or hide chart elements