Spreadsheet Charts

Feb 26, 2026
11 minutes to read

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

Supported Chart Types

The Spreadsheet Document API supports the following 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

The Spreadsheet Document API also provides limited support for the charts listed below. You can load/save these charts, create and modify them in the API, but you cannot print or export these charts to PDF.

Pie Charts: Pie of Pie, Bar of Pie.
Surface Charts: Contour, Wireframe Contour, 3-D Surface, Wireframe 3-D Surface.

Chart Elements

The following image displays chart elements. You can add or remove these elements to customize a chart layout.

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.

Arrange Worksheet Data to Create a Chart

When you create a chart, the Spreadsheet plots data on the chart based on the number of rows and columns in the source range:

If the source range has more rows than columns, the first column provides labels for the category axis (X-axis), and the first row contains series names. Series values are arranged in columns.
If the source range has more columns than rows or the number of rows and columns is the same, the first row provides labels for the category axis (X-axis), and the first column contains series names. Series values are arranged in rows.

You can use the ChartObject.SwitchRowColumn method to change the default direction used to plot data series on a chart (whether the series values are obtained from columns or rows), or call the ChartObject.SelectData method with the direction parameter to specify how to retrieve series values.

The table below lists how to arrange data on a worksheet to create a specific chart.

Chart type

Data arrangement

| | --- | --- | |

Line, column, bar, area, surface, or radar chart

In columns or rows:

| |

Pie chart

Uses a single series of values arranged in one column or row. Another column or row contains data labels.

| |

Doughnut chart

In one or multiple columns or rows, and one column or row contains data labels.

| |

Scatter or bubble chart

In columns or rows. Place x values in the first column or row, and the corresponding y values in the adjacent columns or rows.

For a bubble chart, add columns or rows specifying the bubble size.

| |

Stock chart

In columns or rows in the same order as the stock chart name.

Create a Chart

The chart collection (ChartCollection) stores charts in a worksheet. You can use the Worksheet.Charts property to access a worksheet’s chart collection, and the collection’s ChartCollection.Add method to create a chart. The ChartType enumeration value specifies the chart type.

Use one of the following approaches to specify the chart’s data:

Use the ChartCollection.Add Method

Pass a cell range containing chart data to the ChartCollection.Add method. Refer to the following section for information on how to organize data in the source range to create a specific chart: Arrange Worksheet Data to Create a Chart.

C#
VB.NET

csharp

// Create a column chart using a cell range as a data source.
Chart chart = worksheet.Charts.Add(ChartType.ColumnClustered, worksheet["B2:F6"]);

' Create a column chart using a cell range as a data source.
Dim chart As Chart = worksheet.Charts.Add(ChartType.ColumnClustered, worksheet("B2:F6"))

Use Chart Templates

Use the following methods to import and apply chart settings from Chart Template files (.CRTX):

ChartCollection.AddFromTemplate(Stream)Loads a chart template from the stream and adds the chart to the collection.ChartCollection.AddFromTemplate(Stream, CellRange)Loads a chart template from the stream, binds it to data from the specified range, and adds the chart to the collection.

Call the ChartObject.SelectData Method

Pass a cell range containing chart data to the ChartObject.SelectData method. This method also allows you to specify the data direction: whether the series values are arranged in columns (ChartDataDirection.Column) or rows (ChartDataDirection.Row).

C#
VB.NET

csharp

// Create a column chart.
Chart chart = worksheet.Charts.Add(ChartType.ColumnClustered);
// Select data for the chart and specify the data direction.
chart.SelectData(worksheet["B2:F6"], ChartDataDirection.Row);

' Create a column chart.
Dim chart As Chart = worksheet.Charts.Add(ChartType.ColumnClustered)
' Select data for the chart and specify the data direction.
chart.SelectData(worksheet("B2:F6"), ChartDataDirection.Row)

Add Data to Series

Use the SeriesCollection.Add method overloads to add data series to the chart’s series collection (ChartObject.Series). These methods enable you to plot data contained in the noncontiguous cell ranges. You can explicitly specify a name, arguments, and values for each series.

C#
VB.NET

csharp

// Create a column chart.
Chart chart = worksheet.Charts.Add(ChartType.ColumnClustered);
// Add two data series to the chart.
chart.Series.Add(worksheet["D2"], worksheet["B3:B6"], worksheet["D3:D6"]);
chart.Series.Add(worksheet["F2"], worksheet["B3:B6"], worksheet["F3:F6"]);

' Create a column chart.
Dim chart As Chart = worksheet.Charts.Add(ChartType.ColumnClustered)
' Add two data series to the chart.
chart.Series.Add(worksheet("D2"), worksheet("B3:B6"), worksheet("D3:D6"))
chart.Series.Add(worksheet("F2"), worksheet("B3:B6"), worksheet("F3:F6"))

The ChartData object specifies data plotted on a chart. You can also use an array of numeric, string or Boolean literals as the chart’s data source. ChartData supports implicit conversion from an array of CellValue objects. You can use these objects to specify numeric, string or Boolean values without casting. Use the ChartData.FromArray method to convert the CellValue type arrays to chart data, or assign these arrays to the series’s arguments and values directly.

C#
VB.NET

csharp

// Create a column chart.
Chart chart = worksheet.Charts.Add(ChartType.ColumnClustered);
// Add a series bound to a set of literal data.
Series literalSeries = chart.Series.Add(
    new CellValue[] { "Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun" },
    new CellValue[] { 50, 100, 30, 104, 87, 150 });

' Create a column chart.
Dim chart As Chart = worksheet.Charts.Add(ChartType.ColumnClustered)
' Add a series bound to a set of literal data.
Dim literalSeries As Series = chart.Series.Add(
      New CellValue() { "Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun" }, 
      New CellValue() { 50, 100, 30, 104, 87, 150 })

The following topics contain more examples on how to create charts in code:

Combination Charts

Each chart has an associated ChartView. This object is created automatically when you create a chart. It consolidates data series of the same type (ChartView.Series) and contains customization options. A ChartView object is a member of the Chart.Views collection. A chart can have several ChartView objects (a combination chart). To create a combination chart, use the Series.ChangeType method to change an existing series’s type. If the specified type is incompatible with the other series types, the Spreadsheet clears ChartViewCollection and creates a new ChartView object to display all chart series. This object has the same type as the modified data series. The following topic contains a list of compatible chart types and describes how to create a combination chart: How to: Create and Modify a Chart.