分类: C/C++
2008-09-14 19:55:02
CBarChart
is a simple MFC control derived from CWnd
. It helps you develop your own charts quickly and print them easily.
A few days ago, I needed to add a chart to a project. When completed, I thought to myself that it's not too bad, so I decided to share it with my workmates in Code Project, and here it is.
I did not have a lot of time to work on this control, so I had to keep it as simple as possible. My goals for creating this chart were as follows:
With all the above assumptions, I started what you see here. Enjoy and please help me with the invaluable notes, bugs reports, ideas, etc. that you think might improve the quality of this code.
First we have to create a chart:
#include "BarChart.h"
to the top of header file of class in which you want to add this chart.
membrt
variable of type CBarChart
.
Create
method of the member variable to create a chart control. // Create a bar chart control
if (!m_chart.Create(
rcBound, // Bounding rectangle of the control
this, // A pointer to the parent window to be shown on
0 )) // ID of this control
{
// Error, can't create the chart
}
If Create
suceeds, it returns TRUE
.
You can use SetTitle
or SetBKColor
to add a title or change color of the background of control.
m_chart.SetTitle("A test chart, displaying some dummy data...");
m_chart.SetBKColor(RGB(255, 255, 240));
Finally, to add bars to the chart, use AddBar
method as follows:
m_chart.AddBar(
1600.356, // A value to be shown at the top of the bar
"Jan", // A label under the bar chart
RGB(255,255,0)); // Color of the bar
Note that the control uses this color (last parameter of AddBar
) to create a gradient for the bar, which in my humble opinion is more polished.
You can also decide whether to see grid lines, labels or values:
m_chart.ShowGrid(m_bShowGrid, TRUE); // Show/Hide grids
m_chart.ShowBarText(1, m_bShowText, TRUE); // Show/Hide values(top)
m_chart.ShowLabel(m_bShowLabel, TRUE); // Show/Hide labels(bottom)
m_chart.ShowTooltip(m_bShowTip); // Activate/deactivate tooltips
Also note that the first parameter of ShowBarText
is used to toggle between two states: 0 indicates show value of the bar at the top of it and 1 indicates show percentage regarding other values.
You can also change default behaviour of the grid. By default, the grid fills the chart background by crossed vertical and horizontal lines resulting in rectangles with 10 (device) unit width and height. To change this behavior, use SetGridLines
member function.
SetGridLines(
int nHorLineCount, // Number of horizontal lines, 0 = ignore
int nVerLineCount, // Number of vertical lines, 0 = ignore
BOOL bFixedSize, // If TRUE, first 2 parameters will be ignored
int nFixedSize) // A fixed value that defines distance between 2 lines,
// Will be used if previous parameter is set to TRUE
The bar is able to scale itself if had been asked to, but quality drops suddenly since it uses StretchBlt
. This decreases quality drastically. I hope you don't mind since I did not have enough time to redraw the whole chart to fit in to the screen.
m_chart.SetAutoScale(m_bScale); // Set chart to be auto scaled
// Reposition window, so it finds out the size to fit into
m_chart.SetWindowPos( 0, 0, 0,
rcClient.Width(),
rcClient.Height() , SWP_NOMOVE);
m_chart.Refresh(); // Force the chart to redraw itself
// You might also need to override OnSize of the
// Parent to position the chart, so it is always at the size you like
You can use RemoveAt
or RemoveAll
to remove bars from the control for a specific zero based index or totally respectively.
m_chart.RemoveAt(nRemIndex); // Removes the item indexed nRemIndex.
// Index is zero based.
m_chart.RemoveAll(); // Removes all bars
Call SaveToFile
to save the chart as a bitmap file. Function accepts a CString
member function that is set to empty by default. If this string is empty, function prompts for file path by displaying a FileSaveAs
dialog box. This function returns False
in case of failure. Use GetLastErrorMessage()
member function to get a string describing reason for failure.
// Save chart as a bitmap file
if (!m_chart.SaveToFile())
{
AfxMessageBox(m_chart.GetLastErrorMessage());
};
It would be appreciated if someone checks out saving to bitmap code, to make sure there are no bugs.
Use Print
function to print the chart.
Use this function with care: According to the article by Roger Allen: if we are going to print a bitmap, it is better to use DIB's instead of DDB's. So this function takes a parameter of type boolean:
bCompatible
(default is false
).
If you set the parameter to tru
e, it means you asked the chart to use DIB's which is recommended. I just copy-pasted the code snippet that Mr. Roger Allen provided and created two copies of the Print
one that uses StretchBlt
directly, and one that uses the code mentioned to convert it to DIB.
To me both types of functions work fine. But unfortunately, I did not have enough time to check the printing process correctly. So it would be very kind of you to report any bugs you might find or any corrections. I'm not familiar enough with printing.
m_chart.Print(); // Prints the whole chart fitted in the page.
// If you have a lot of bars, I recommend selecting landscape in the
// print dialog box.
CBarChart
uses ODBC Version 3 to connect to the database.
To connect the chart to an ODBC data source, use one of the forms of ReadFromDatabase
// Use this form to call a stored procedure or a query and use
// result set as chart input
ReadFromDatabase("DS Name", "Stored proc/Query Name", "List of all parameters",
"Bars Color", "UserName", "Password"));
// Note that the query or stored procedure MUST have at least 2 columns,
// First column MUST be of type char with maximum length of 50 and
// Second a double. These columns will be used as input data for the chart.
Second form can be used to conect to a table
m_chart.ReadFromDatabase("DS Name", "Table name", "Filter",
"Laabel column name", "dValue column name",
Bars color , "username", "password");
Below is an example of a call to these functions
if (!m_chart.ReadFromDatabase("CHTst", "SpChartGetSale", "1, 12",
RGB(0, 0, 0), "hamed", "hamed"))
{
AfxMessageBox(m_chart.GetLastDatabaseErrMessage());
};
or
m_chart.ReadFromDatabase("CHTst", "Sales", "",
"Month", "SaleRate",
RGB(0, 0, 0) , "hamed", "hamed");
I added a sample access database file to the download list. You can add this to your 'system' or 'user' data sources in ODBC Administration tool in the control panel. Name it CHTst
and press the 'FromDatabase' button on the sample application. What you see is a result set of a call to a stored procedure that is done with one line of code. Enjoy.