ACC97: How to Use Automation to Create a Microsoft Excel Chart

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SUMMARY

This article shows you how to use automation to create and format a chart in Microsoft Excel 97.

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Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers 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 requirements. The following steps demonstrate how to use a Visual Basic for Applications procedure to create a Microsoft Excel 97 chart that is based on a query in the sample database Northwind.mdb:

Start Microsoft Access and open the sample database Northwind.mdb.

Create the following query based on the Orders table and the Order Details Extended query:

   Query: qrySalesByCountry
   ------------------------------------------------------------------
      Type: Select Query
      Join: [Orders].[OrderID] <-> [Order Details Extended].[OrderID]

      Field: ShipCountry
         Table: Orders
         Total: Group By
      Field: ExtendedPrice
         Query: Order Details Extended
         Total: Sum

Save the query as qrySalesByCountry and close it.

Create a new module and type the following line in the Declarations section if it isn't already there:
Option Explicit
On the Tools menu, click References. In the References dialog box, ensure that the Microsoft Excel 8.0 Object Library check box is selected, and then click OK.

Type or paste the following procedure into the module:

Function CreateChart(strSourceName As String, _
      strFileName As String)

   Dim xlApp As Excel.Application
   Dim xlWrkbk As Excel.Workbook
   Dim xlChartObj As Excel.Chart
   Dim xlSourceRange As Excel.Range
   Dim xlColPoint As Excel.Point

   On Error GoTo Err_CreateChart

   ' Create an Excel workbook file based on the
   ' object specified in the second argument.
   DoCmd.TransferSpreadsheet acExport, acSpreadsheetTypeExcel97, _
         strSourceName, strFileName, False
   ' Create a Microsoft Excel object.
   Set xlApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
   ' Open the spreadsheet to which you exported the data.
   Set xlWrkbk = xlApp.Workbooks.Open(strFileName)
   ' Determine the size of the range and store it.
   Set xlSourceRange = _
         xlWrkbk.Worksheets(1).Range("a1").CurrentRegion
   ' Create a new chart.
   Set xlChartObj = xlApp.Charts.Add
   ' Format the chart.
   With xlChartObj

      ' Specify chart type as 3D.
      .ChartType = xl3DColumn
      ' Set the range of the chart.
      .SetSourceData Source:=xlSourceRange, _
            PlotBy:=xlColumns
      ' Specify that the chart is located on a new sheet.
      .Location Where:=xlLocationAsNewSheet
      ' Create and set the title; set title font.
      .HasTitle = True
      With .ChartTitle
         .Characters.Text = _
            "Total Sales by Country"
         .Font.Size = 18
      End With

      ' Rotate the x-axis labels to a 45-degree angle.
      .Axes(xlCategory).TickLabels.Orientation = 45
      ' Delete the label at the far right of the x-axis.
      .Axes(xlSeries).Delete
      ' Delete the legend.
      .HasLegend = False
      ' Set each datapoint to show the dollar amount
      ' and format the datapoint to be currency
      ' with no decimals.
      With .SeriesCollection(1)
         .ApplyDataLabels Type:=xlDataLabelsShowValue
         .DataLabels.NumberFormat = "$#,##0"
      End With

   End With

   ' Position the points further from the tops
   ' of the columns.
   For Each xlColPoint In _
        xlChartObj.SeriesCollection(1).Points
      xlColPoint.DataLabel.Top = _
            xlColPoint.DataLabel.Top - 11
   Next xlColPoint
   ' Save and close the workbook
   ' and quit Microsoft Excel.
   With xlWrkbk
      .Save
      .Close
   End With

   xlApp.Quit

Exit_CreateChart:
   Set xlSourceRange = Nothing
   Set xlColPoint = Nothing
   Set xlChartObj = Nothing
   Set xlWrkbk = Nothing
   Set xlApp = Nothing
Exit Function

Err_CreateChart:

   MsgBox CStr(Err) & " " & Err.Description
   Resume Exit_CreateChart

End Function

On the Debug menu, click Compile And Save All Modules.
Press CTRL+G to open the Debug window.
To run this procedure, type the following line in the Debug window, and then press ENTER:
?CreateChart("qrySalesByCountry","c:\Sales.xls")
Open the file c:\Sales.xls in Microsoft Excel 97. Click the chart sheet Chart1 to view the Sales By Country chart.

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REFERENCES

For more information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

163435 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/163435/EN-US/ ) VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for Applications

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APPLIES TO

Microsoft Access 97 Standard Edition

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kbhowto KB184273

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Retired KB Content Disclaimer

This article was written about products for which Microsoft no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.

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