Chart and Series Objects: Introduction

The Chart class is a control which can display a range of different business, statistical and scientific graphs. The actual data which is displayed in the graph is held in one or more Series objects. (See the workspace 10 SAMPLESCHART for examples).

Note: Using the Chart and Series objects, you have full control over the appearance of the graph. However, if you do not need this, a simpler (but less flexible) way of drawing a graph is to use the ⎕CHART system function, or simply to right-click on the name of a suitable variable and select 'Display as Chart' from the pop-up menu.

The Chart object can display the following types of graph:

Although you can customize many aspects of the display of a Chart object, it is designed so that it automatically selects defaults which should give a good appearance for the chart with minimal programming. For example, if a chart is re-sized, by default the font sizes are adjusted appropriately, and reasonable values for the chart scale, tick positions, and labels are automatically chosen.

Charts by default are displayed in color. You can select your own colors for all the major elements of a chart, or you can leave the Chart object to select defaults. You can also ask for the chart to be displayed in monochrome.

As well as being displayed within your windows, charts can also be printed, copied to the clipboard, and saved to file in various formats.

You can also customize a chart by adding your own graphics elements using the Draw method.

Except where noted below, the Chart object behaves identically on all of the APLX desktop platforms (Windows, MacOS, and Linux).