In Microsoft Excel, you can set the Minimum and Maximum properties of the y-axis scale to any value. The example in this article shows the steps necessary to create a Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications procedure that determines the minimum and maximum values contained in your data and sets the scale based on these values.

Back to the top

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified Partner or the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about Microsoft Certified Partners, please visit the following Microsoft Web site: For more information about the support options that are available and about how to contact Microsoft, visit the following Microsoft Web site: The following Visual Basic macro sets the minimum and maximum values for the y-axis scale in a chart to the maximum and minimum values of the data used to create the chart.

Type the following in a Visual Basic module sheet:

   Sub SetScaleToMinAndMaxValues()
      Dim ValuesArray(), SeriesValues As Variant
      Dim Ctr As Integer, TotCtr As Integer
      ' Uses the first chart on the active worksheet.
      With ActiveSheet.ChartObjects(1).Chart
         ' Note: Instead of the preceding line, you could use this line:
         '
         '    With ActiveChart
         '
         ' if you wanted to be able to run this macro on a chart sheet.
         ' Loops through all of the Series and retrieves the values
         ' and places them into an array named ValuesArray.
         For Each X In .SeriesCollection
            SeriesValues = X.Values
            ReDim Preserve ValuesArray(1 To TotCtr + UBound(SeriesValues))
            For Ctr = 1 To UBound(SeriesValues)
               ValuesArray(Ctr + TotCtr) = SeriesValues(Ctr)
               
            Next
            TotCtr = TotCtr + UBound(SeriesValues)
         Next
         ' Reset the minimum and maximum scale to the minimum and
         ' maximum values in the ValuesArray.
         .Axes(xlValue).MinimumScaleIsAuto = True
         .Axes(xlValue).MaximumScaleIsAuto = True
         .Axes(xlValue).MinimumScale = Application.Min(ValuesArray)
         .Axes(xlValue).MaximumScale = Application.Max(ValuesArray)
      End With
   End Sub
				

Back to the top

Using the Macro

1.	Select the worksheet that contains your chart.
2.	To activate the macro, click Macro on the Tools menu, and run the SetScaleToMinAndMaxValues macro.

The minimum and maximum values of the y-axis should now be equal to the minimum and maximum values of the data.

Back to the top