Spreadsheet Chart Overview

Apr 15, 2025
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