ExcelChart UDF - Help & Support

[water]

This is the "General Help and Support" thread for the ExcelChart UDF.

The UDF itself can be downloaded

So if you have any questions, suggestions or errors please post here.

[maba]

Hi Guys,

is there the possibilty to manage "error bars" with this great UDF?

For me error bars are the better solution to achive this:

A scatter chart with a vertical error bar and a label: a "dynamic" vertical bar.

Suggestions?

Thanks!

[water]

Hi maba,

not yet.

Can you create the vertical lines with Excel manually? If yes, you could create a macro and we can have alook at the VBA code and can try to translate it to AutoIt.

What version of Excel do you use?

[maba]

Something like this:

Sub ErrorBar()
'
' ErrorBar Macro
'
'
    ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Grafico 4").Activate
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(2).Select
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection.NewSeries
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).Name = "=""Error"""
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).XValues = "='Tabelle gestione grafico'!$H$9"
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).Values = "='Tabelle gestione grafico'!$I$9"
    ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Grafico 4").Activate
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).Select
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(8).HasErrorBars = True
    ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Grafico 4").Activate
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).ErrorBars.Select
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).ErrorBar Direction:=xlY, Include:= _
        xlMinusValues, Type:=xlFixedValue, Amount:=1
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).ErrorBars.EndStyle = xlNoCap
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).ErrorBar Direction:=xlY, Include:= _
        xlMinusValues, Type:=xlPercent, Amount:=5
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).ErrorBar Direction:=xlY, Include:= _
        xlMinusValues, Type:=xlPercent, Amount:=100
    ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Grafico 4").Activate
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).ErrorBars.Select
    ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Grafico 4").Activate
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).Select
    ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Grafico 4").Activate
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).ApplyDataLabels
    ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Grafico 4").Activate
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).DataLabels.Select
    Selection.Position = xlLabelPositionCenter
End Sub

I think that I can use this for now, should it work.. right?

At least Office 2007!

[water]

If you translate it to AutoIt it should work.

ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).ErrorBar Direction:=xlY, Include:=xlMinusValues, Type:=xlPercent, Amount:=100

should become something like:

ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(11).ErrorBar($xlY, $xlMinusValues, $xlPercent, 100)

(but I'm not 100% sure - I will have to test it tomorrow)

Can you post a screenshot of the resulting Excel chart? So we can test that we get the same result when we put the error bars into a function of the UDF.

[maba]

This

Sub Macro6()

    Range("A5:B5").Select
    ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddChart.Select
    ActiveChart.SetSourceData Source:=Range("'Foglio1'!$A$5:$B$5")
    ActiveChart.ChartType = xlXYScatter
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(1).Select
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(1).HasErrorBars = True
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(1).ErrorBars.Select
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(1).ErrorBars.EndStyle = xlNoCap
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(1).ErrorBar Direction:=xlY, Include:= _
        xlMinusValues, Type:=xlFixedValue, Amount:=1
    ActiveChart.ChartArea.Select
    ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(1).ApplyDataLabels

End Sub

generates

but macro does not:

• apply the styles
• center the label
• delete the horizontal error bar

Thanks

[water]

Not perfect, but I hope it's a good start:

#include <ExcelChart.au3>

; *****************************************************************************
; Create example environment
; *****************************************************************************
Global $aExcel = _XLChart_Example(True, 0, -1, -1, -1)
If @error = 2 Then Exit MsgBox(16, "Excel Chart Example Script", "The installed Excel version is not supported by this UDF!" & @CRLF & "Version must be >= 12 (Excel 2007).")
If @error <> 0 Then Exit MsgBox(16, "Excel Chart Example Script", "Error " & @error & " returned by _XLChart_Example on line " & @ScriptLineNumber)

$iXLC_Debug = 2
Global $iTop
_ExcelWriteCell($aExcel[0], "", "B2:B5")                                            ; Clear all cells but one
_XLChart_SeriesSet($aExcel[1] .SeriesCollection(1), $xlLine)                        ; Remove markers
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).HasErrorBars = True                                    ; Activate Error bars
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).ErrorBars.EndStyle = $xlNoCap                        ; No cap
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).ErrorBar($xlY, $xlMinusValues, $xlPercent, 100)        ; Set error bars
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).ApplyDataLabels()                                    ; Appl
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).DataLabels.Position = 0                                ; Set the data labels above
_XLChart_LineSet($aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).ErrorBars, 1, 0x4A7EBB)                ; Set line color for the error bar
_XLChart_LineSet($aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).DataLabels, 2, 0x4A7EBB)            ; Set line color of the data label
$iTop = $aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).Points(5).DataLabel.Top
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).Points(5).DataLabel.Top = $iTop + 5                    ; Reposition the data label
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).Points(5).DataLabel.Text = "Test"                    ; Set text of a point of the data label

[maba]

Ok, as is I have:

>Running AU3Check (1.54.22.0)  from:C:Program Files (x86)AutoIt3
Z:AutoITsamplesErrorBar.au3(15,93) : WARNING: $xlNoCap: possibly used before declaration.
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).ErrorBars.EndStyle = $xlNoCap                        ; No cap
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
Z:AutoITsamplesErrorBar.au3(16,45) : WARNING: $xlY: possibly used before declaration.
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).ErrorBar($xlY,
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^

If I declare the vars, script works but I've two "Type mismatch" debug info.. If not styles aren't applied.

Probably not important now.

Bars does not cross X axis, in fact Display -> Direction is set to Both and not Negative and Error Amount is set to Fixed value: 5.0 and not Percentage: 100. Why?

Label is not set correctly.. next step

Edited February 6, 2012 by maba

[water]

Sorry, forgot to replace this two constants with their values.

$xlNoCap = 2 and $xlY = 1

I will post a screenshot of what I got with Excel 2010 tomorrow.

[maba]

Ok, is the right way

A little problem with the label.. but it is good. On Excel 2007.

Edited February 6, 2012 by maba

[water]

The positioning of the text is not perfect in Excel 2010 too. We could either play around with changing the "left" property or to change the datalabels.position to center. But in this case the line will end in the center of the box. If we use a filling for the box then the line will be invisible and the text will be centered automatically.

I will check how much of the errorbar properties can be set by a function.

[maba]

Yes, box filling is perfect for me.

Thanks for your time!

[water]

I'm going to post such an example tomorrow.

[water]

Hi maba,

here is the enhanced version:

#AutoIt3Wrapper_UseX64=n
#AutoIt3Wrapper_AU3Check_Parameters= -d -w 1 -w 2 -w 3 -w 4 -w 5 -w 6
#AutoIt3Wrapper_AU3Check_Stop_OnWarning=Y
#include-once
#include <ExcelChart.au3>

; *****************************************************************************
; Create example environment
; *****************************************************************************
Global $aExcel = _XLChart_Example(True, 0, -1, -1, -1)
If @error = 2 Then Exit MsgBox(16, "Excel Chart Example Script", "The installed Excel version is not supported by this UDF!" & @CRLF & "Version must be >= 12 (Excel 2007).")
If @error <> 0 Then Exit MsgBox(16, "Excel Chart Example Script", "Error " & @error & " returned by _XLChart_Example on line " & @ScriptLineNumber)

$iXLC_Debug = 2
Global $iTop
_ExcelWriteCell($aExcel[0], "", "B4:B5")                                            ; Clear all cells but one
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).HasErrorBars = True                                    ; Activate Error bars
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).ErrorBars.EndStyle = 2                                ; No cap: $xlNoCap
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).ErrorBar(1, $xlMinusValues, $xlPercent, 100)            ; Set error bars: ($xlY, $xlMinusValues, $xlPercent, 100)
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).ApplyDataLabels()                                    ; Apply the datalabels
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).DataLabels.Position = -4108                            ; Set the data labels centered: $xlLabelPositionCenter
_XLChart_LineSet($aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1), Default, Default, False, Default, Default, $xlSheetHidden) ; Set series 1 to invisible
$aExcel[1].Legend.LegendEntries.Item(1).Delete()                                     ; Remove the legend entry for dataseries 1
_XLChart_LineSet($aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).ErrorBars, 1, 0x4A7EBB)                ; Set line color for the error bar
_XLChart_LineSet($aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).DataLabels, 1, 0)                    ; Set line color of the data label
_XLChart_FillSet($aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).DataLabels, 0x4A7EBB)                ; Fill the datalabel
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).Points(5).DataLabel.Text = "Test3"                    ; Set text of a point of the data label
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).Points(2).DataLabel.Text = "Test2"
$aExcel[1].SeriesCollection(1).Points(1).DataLabel.Text = "Test1" & @LF & "Next line"

[maba]

Yep! It works well!

When I'll finish my charts I'll post a full example.

THANKS!

[water]

I'm just writing the _XLChart_ErrorBarSet function. The next version of the UDF will have this function.

[maba]

One thing: error bars series is always in "background": both SeriesCollection(1) and SeriesCollection(n) are always set behind other series.

[water]

You can change the plotorder of a data series within a chartgroup. It didn't work for the example - the markers of data series 2 always overwrite the errorbar.

Maybe this helps for your chart:

$aExcel[1].ChartGroups(1).SeriesCollection(2).PlotOrder = 1

[maba]

no way to set errorbar PlotOrder for now.

[water]

Just for the records. When the error bars are moved to the secondary value axis they overwrite even the markers.

An example will follow!