Excel Chart

[RolltheBall]

Hi there. How do I further call an excel chart into my vb prog. Right now, all I can do is call open the excel file. However, I want to make the excel chart file executable. In other words, my customer must not need excel program to open the chart. Is there any way I could do this? Or should I just draw the chart on vb prog itself using GUI?

[Killer42]

Hi there. How do I further call an excel chart into my vb prog. Right now, all I can do is call open the excel file. However, I want to make the excel chart file executable. In other words, my customer must not need excel program to open the chart. Is there any way I could do this? Or should I just draw the chart on vb prog itself using GUI?

You can use the MSChart control to produce the chart in VB, and I don't think you need Excel installed. Though obviously you do need to get the data somehow, which may require Excel.

[RolltheBall]

You can use the MSChart control to produce the chart in VB, and I don't think you need Excel installed. Though obviously you do need to get the data somehow, which may require Excel.

Thanks, but I'm actually avoiding Excel bcos a colleague of mine was saying that MSChart does not support VB 2005 Express Edition (the version we're using). He had tried using MSChart but in the end redo everything he has done.

Hmm.. are u saying that there's no way I could get data from Excel without having the program itself?

[Killer42]

Thanks, but I'm actually avoiding Excel bcos a colleague of mine was saying that MSChart does not support VB 2005 Express Edition (the version we're using). He had tried using MSChart but in the end redo everything he has done.

Hmm.. are u saying that there's no way I could get data from Excel without having the program itself?

I think that's the case, but I'm not expert in this area. If you think about it though, you need something which can interpret the contents of the Excel file. Seems to me, that would probably mean one of these:

• Excel
• A conversion program which converts between different spreadsheet programs
• Perhaps an ODBC driver which is designed to read Excel files and treat them as databases.
• Not sure what else.

However, as I said I don't have a lot of experience in this area. Does the MSChart control work with Excel files? If so, I'd recommend you double-check the availability/compatibility with your VB version. (Of course, the simplest thing might be to try creating a sample application which uses MSChart, and see what happens.)

[RolltheBall]

I think that's the case, but I'm not expert in this area. If you think about it though, you need something which can interpret the contents of the Excel file. Seems to me, that would probably mean one of these:

• Excel
• A conversion program which converts between different spreadsheet programs
• Perhaps an ODBC driver which is designed to read Excel files and treat them as databases.
• Not sure what else.

However, as I said I don't have a lot of experience in this area. Does the MSChart control work with Excel files? If so, I'd recommend you double-check the availability/compatibility with your VB version. (Of course, the simplest thing might be to try creating a sample application which uses MSChart, and see what happens.)

Thanks Killer. I will try using MSChart. =)