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VBA code for charts and graphs in Excel
Posted on May 6, 2019 by Excel Off The Grid

Charts and graphs in Excel have hundreds of different options.  This is great for creating precisely the visualization we want but
can be time-consuming to apply.  When we want to apply those hundreds of settings to lots of charts, it can take hours and
hours of frustrating clicking.  The short code snippets below will help you apply some of the most common chart options with
VBA (and hopefully turn those hours into minutes).

But don’t let me fool you into thinking that using VBA is quick and easy, it’s not.  But once you’ve mastered it, you’ll know the
situations when VBA is the best option.

While it might be tempting to skip straight to the section you need, I recommend you read the rst section in full. 
Understanding Excel’s Document Object Model (DOM) is essential to understand how VBA can be used with charts.

In Excel 2013, many changes were introduced to the charting engine and DOM.  For example, the AddChart2 method
replaced the AddChart method.  As a result, some of the code presented in this post may not work with versions before
Excel 2013.

Adapting the code to your requirements

It is not feasible to provide code for every scenario you might come across; there are just too many options.  By applying the
principles and methods in this post, you will be able to do almost anything you want with charts in Excel using VBA.

Understanding the Document Object Model

The Document Object Model (DOM) is a term which describes how things are structured.  For example:

A Workbook contains Sheets

A Sheet contains Ranges
A Range contains an Interior
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An Interior contains a color setting

Therefore, to change a cell color to red, we would reference this as follows:

ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1").Interior.Color = RGB(255, 0, 0)

Charts are also part of the DOM and follow similar hierarchical principles.  To change the height of Chart 1, on Sheet1, we could
use the following.

ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").ChartObjects("Chart 1").Height = 300

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Each item in the object hierarchy must be listed and separated by a period ( . ).

While the following code may look acceptable, it will not work.

ActiveWorkbook.ChartObjects("Chart 1").Height = 300

In the DOM, the ActiveWorkbook does not contain ChartObjects, so Excel cannot nd Chart 1.  The parent of a ChartObject is
a Sheet, and the Parent of a Sheet is a Workbook.  We must include the Sheet into the hierarchy for Excel to know what you
want to do.

ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1").ChartObjects("Chart 1").Height = 300

With this knowledge, we can refer to any element of any chart using Excel’s DOM.

Chart Objects vs. Charts vs. Chart Sheets

One of the things which makes the DOM for charts complicated is that many things exist in many places.  For example, a chart
can be an embedded chart of the face of a worksheet, or as a separate sheet.

On the worksheet itself, we nd, what VBA refers to as a ChartObject.  Within each ChartObject is a Chart.  Effectively FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA
a ChartObject is a container which holds a Chart.
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A Chart is also a stand-alone sheet; it does not have a ChartObject around it.

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This may seem confusing initially, but there are good reasons for this.

To change the chart title text, we would reference the two types of chart differently:

Chart on a worksheet:

Sheets("Sheet1").ChartObjects("Chart 1").Chart.ChartTitle.Text = "My Chart Title"

Chart sheet:

Sheets("Chart 1").ChartTitle.Text = "My Chart Title"

The sections in bold are the same, which shows that once we have got inside the Chart, the DOM is the same.

Writing code to work on either chart type

We want to write code which will work on any chart; we do this by creating a variable which holds the reference to a Chart.

Create a variable to refer to a Chart inside a ChartObject:

Dim cht As Chart

Set cht = Sheets("Sheet1").ChartObjects("Chart 1").Chart

Create a variable to refer to a Chart which is a sheet:

Dim cht As Chart

Set cht = Sheets("Chart 1")

Now we can write VBA code for a Chart sheet or a Chart inside a ChartObject by referring to the Chart using cht:

cht.ChartTitle.Text = "My Chart Title"

OK, so now we’ve established how to reference charts and brie y covered how the DOM works.  It is time to look at lots of
code examples.

VBA Code Examples

Reference charts on a worksheet

Active Chart

Create a Chart variable to hold the ActiveChart:

Dim cht As Chart

Set cht = ActiveChart

Chart Object by name

Create a Chart variable to hold a speci c chart by name.

Dim cht As Chart

Set cht = Sheets("Sheet1").ChartObjects("Chart 1").Chart

Chart object by number

If there are multiple charts on a worksheet, they can be referenced by their number.  1 = the rst chart created, 2 = the second
chart created etc, etc.

Dim cht As Chart

Set cht = Sheets("Sheet1").ChartObjects(1).Chart

Loop through all Chart Objects

If there are multiple ChartObjects on a page, we can loop through each:

Dim chtObj as ChartObject

For Each chtObj In Sheets("Sheet1").ChartObjects

'Include the code to be applied to each ChartObjects

'refer to the Chart using chtObj.cht

Next chtObj

Loop through all selected Chart Objects

If we only want to loop through the selected ChartObjects we can use the following code.

This code is tricky to apply as Excel operates differently when one chart is selected, compared to multiple charts.  Therefore, as
a way to apply the Chart settings, without the need to repeat a lot of code, I recommend calling another macro and passing the
Chart as an argument to that macro.

Dim obj As Object

'Check if any charts have been selected

If Not ActiveChart Is Nothing Then

Call AnotherMacro(ActiveChart)

Else
For Each obj In Selection

'If more than one chart selected

If TypeName(obj) = "ChartObject" Then

Call AnotherMacro(obj.Chart)

End If
Next

End If

Reference chart sheets

Active Chart

Set up a Chart variable to hold the ActiveChart:

Dim cht As Chart

Set cht = ActiveChart

Note: this is the same code as when referencing the active chart on the worksheet.

Chart sheet by name

Set up a Chart variable to hold a speci c chart sheet

Dim cht As Chart

Set cht = Sheets("Chart 1")

Loop through all chart sheets in a workbook

The following code will loop through all the chart sheets in the active workbook.

Dim cht As Chart

For Each cht In ActiveWorkbook.Charts

Call AnotherMacro(cht)

Next cht

Chart
Some basic chart settings are shown below:

'Change chart type - these are common examples, others do exist.

cht.ChartType = xlArea
cht.ChartType = xlLine
cht.ChartType = xlPie
cht.ChartType = xlColumnClustered
cht.ChartType = xlColumnStacked
cht.ChartType = xlColumnStacked100
cht.ChartType = xlArea
cht.ChartType = xlAreaStacked
cht.ChartType = xlBarClustered
cht.ChartType = xlBarStacked
cht.ChartType = xlBarStacked100

'Create an empty chart embedded on a worksheet.

Set cht = Sheets("Sheet1").Shapes.AddChart2.Chart

'Select source for a chart

Dim rng As Range
Set rng = Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1:B4")
cht.SetSourceData Source:=rng

'Delete a ChartObject or Chart sheet

If TypeName(cht.Parent) = "ChartObject" Then

cht.Parent.Delete

ElseIf TypeName(cht.Parent) = "Workbook" Then

cht.Delete

End If

'Set the size/position of a ChartObject - method 1

cht.Parent.Height = 200
cht.Parent.Width = 300
cht.Parent.Left = 20
cht.Parent.Top = 20

'Set the size/position of a ChartObject - method 2

chtObj.Height = 200
chtObj.Width = 300
chtObj.Left = 20
chtObj.Top = 20

'Change the setting to show only visible cells

cht.PlotVisibleOnly = False

'Change the gap space between bars

cht.ChartGroups(1).GapWidth = 50

'Change the overlap setting of bars

cht.ChartGroups(1).Overlap = 75

Chart Axis
There are four chart axis:

xlValue
xlValue, xlSecondary
xlCategory
xlCategory, xlSecondary

These are used interchangeably in the examples below. To adapt the code to your speci c requirements you need to change the
value in the brackets.

'Set chart axis min and max

cht.Axes(xlValue).MaximumScale = 25
cht.Axes(xlValue).MinimumScale = 10
cht.Axes(xlValue).MaximumScaleIsAuto = True
cht.Axes(xlValue).MinimumScaleIsAuto = True

'Display axis
cht.HasAxis(xlCategory) = True

'Hide axis
cht.HasAxis(xlValue, xlSecondary) = False

'Display axis title

cht.Axes(xlCategory, xlSecondary).HasTitle = True

'Hide axis title

cht.Axes(xlValue).HasTitle = False

'Change axis title text

cht.Axes(xlCategory).AxisTitle.Text = "My Axis Title"

'Reverse the order of a catetory axis

cht.Axes(xlCategory).ReversePlotOrder = True

Gridlines

'Add gridlines
cht.SetElement (msoElementPrimaryValueGridLinesMajor)
cht.SetElement (msoElementPrimaryCategoryGridLinesMajor)
cht.SetElement (msoElementPrimaryValueGridLinesMinorMajor)
cht.SetElement (msoElementPrimaryCategoryGridLinesMinorMajor)

'Delete gridlines
cht.Axes(xlValue).MajorGridlines.Delete
cht.Axes(xlValue).MinorGridlines.Delete
cht.Axes(xlCategory).MajorGridli.Delete
cht.Axes(xlCategory).MinorGridlines.Delete

'Change colour of gridlines

cht.Axes(xlValue).MajorGridlines.Format.Line.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(255, 0, 0)

'Change transparency of gridlines

cht.Axes(xlValue).MajorGridlines.Format.Line.Transparency = 0.5

Chart Title

'Display chart title

cht.HasTitle = True

'Hide chart title

cht.HasTitle = False

'Change chart title text

cht.ChartTitle.Text = "My Chart Title"

'Position the chart title

cht.ChartTitle.Left = 10
cht.ChartTitle.Top = 10

'Format the chart title

cht.ChartTitle.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Name = "Calibri"
cht.ChartTitle.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Size = 16
cht.ChartTitle.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Bold = msoTrue
cht.ChartTitle.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Bold = msoFalse
cht.ChartTitle.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Italic = msoTrue
cht.ChartTitle.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Italic = msoFalse

Chart Legend

'Display the legend

cht.HasLegend = True

'Hide the legend

cht.HasLegend = False

'Position the legend

cht.Legend.Position = xlLegendPositionTop
cht.Legend.Position = xlLegendPositionRight
cht.Legend.Position = xlLegendPositionLeft
cht.Legend.Position = xlLegendPositionCorner
cht.Legend.Position = xlLegendPositionBottom

'Allow legend to overlap the chart.

'False = allow overlap, True = due not overlap
cht.Legend.IncludeInLayout = False
cht.Legend.IncludeInLayout = True

'Move legend to a specific point

cht.Legend.Left = 20
cht.Legend.Top = 200
cht.Legend.Width = 100
cht.Legend.Height = 25

Plot Area

'Set the size and position of the PlotArea

cht.PlotArea.Left = 20
cht.PlotArea.Top = 20
cht.PlotArea.Width = 200
cht.PlotArea.Height = 150

Chart series
Set up a Series variable to hold a chart series. 1 = First chart series, 2 = Second chart series.

Dim srs As Series

Set srs = cht.SeriesCollection(1)

Referencing a chart series by name

Dim srs As Series

Set srs = cht.SeriesCollection("Series Name")

Loop through each chart series

For Each srs In cht.SeriesCollection

'Do something to each series

'See the codes below starting with "srs."

Next srs

Change series data

'Change series source data and name

srs.Values = "=Sheet1!$C$2:$C$6"
srs.Name = "=""Change Series Name"""

'Add a new chart series

Set srs = cht.SeriesCollection.NewSeries
srs.Values = "=Sheet1!$C$2:$C$6"
srs.Name = "=""New Series"""
'Set the values for the X axis when using XY Scatter
srs.XValues = "=Sheet1!$D$2:$D$6"

Display data labels

'Display data labels on all points in the series

srs.HasDataLabels = True

'Hide data labels on all points in the series

srs.HasDataLabels = False

'Position data labels

'The label position must be a valid option for the chart type.
srs.DataLabels.Position = xlLabelPositionAbove
srs.DataLabels.Position = xlLabelPositionBelow
srs.DataLabels.Position = xlLabelPositionLeft
srs.DataLabels.Position = xlLabelPositionRight
srs.DataLabels.Position = xlLabelPositionCenter
srs.DataLabels.Position = xlLabelPositionInsideEnd
srs.DataLabels.Position = xlLabelPositionInsideBase
srs.DataLabels.Position = xlLabelPositionOutsideEnd

Series formatting

'Change fill colour

srs.Format.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(255, 0, 0)

'Change line colour

srs.Format.Line.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(255, 0, 0)

'Change visibility of line

srs.Format.Line.Visible = msoTrue

'Change line weight

srs.Format.Line.Weight = 10

'Change line style

srs.Format.Line.DashStyle = msoLineDash
srs.Format.Line.DashStyle = msoLineSolid
srs.Format.Line.DashStyle = msoLineSysDot
srs.Format.Line.DashStyle = msoLineSysDash
srs.Format.Line.DashStyle = msoLineDashDot
srs.Format.Line.DashStyle = msoLineLongDash
srs.Format.Line.DashStyle = msoLineLongDashDot
srs.Format.Line.DashStyle = msoLineLongDashDotDot

'Changer marker type

srs.MarkerStyle = xlMarkerStyleAutomatic
srs.MarkerStyle = xlMarkerStyleCircle
srs.MarkerStyle = xlMarkerStyleDash
srs.MarkerStyle = xlMarkerStyleDiamond
srs.MarkerStyle = xlMarkerStyleDot
srs.MarkerStyle = xlMarkerStyleNone

'Change marker border color

srs.MarkerForegroundColor = RGB(255, 0, 0)

'Change marker fill color

srs.MarkerBackgroundColor = RGB(255, 0, 0)

'Change marker size

srs.MarkerSize = 8

Error Bars

'Turn error bars on/off

srs.HasErrorBars = True
srs.HasErrorBars = False

'Change end style of error bar

srs.ErrorBars.EndStyle = xlNoCap
srs.ErrorBars.EndStyle = xlCap

'Change color of error bars

srs.ErrorBars.Format.Line.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(255, 0, 0)

'Change thickness of error bars

srs.ErrorBars.Format.Line.Weight = 5

'Error bar settings

srs.ErrorBar Direction:=xlY, _
Include:=xlPlusValues, _
Type:=xlFixedValue, _
Amount:=100
'Alternatives options for the error bar settings are
'Direction:=xlX
'Include:=xlMinusValues
'Include:=xlPlusValues
'Include:=xlBoth
'Type:=xlFixedValue
'Type:=xlPercent
'Type:=xlStDev
'Type:=xlStError
'Type:=xlCustom

'Applying custom values to error bars

srs.ErrorBar Direction:=xlY, _
Include:=xlPlusValues, _
Type:=xlCustom, _
Amount:="=Sheet1!$A$2:$A$7", _
MinusValues:="=Sheet1!$A$2:$A$7"

Points
Each data point on a chart series is known as a Point.

Reference a speci c point

The following code will reference the rst Point.

Dim srs As Series

Dim pnt As Point

Set srs = cht.SeriesCollection(1)

Set pnt = srs.Points(1)

Loop through all points

Dim srs As Series

Dim pnt As Point

Set srs = cht.SeriesCollection(1)

For Each pnt In srs.Points

'Do something to each point, using "pnt."

Next pnt

Point Codes

Points have similar properties to Series, but it is applied to a single data point in the series rather than the whole series.  See a
few examples below, just to give you the idea.

'Turn on data label

pnt.HasDataLabel = True

'Set the position of a data label

pnt.DataLabel.Position = xlLabelPositionCenter

Bringing it all together

Just to prove how we can use these code snippets, I have created a macro to create bullet charts. This isn’t necessarily the most
ef cient way to write the code, but it is to demonstrate that by understanding the code above we can create a lot of charts.

The data looks like this:

The chart looks like this:

The code which achieves this is as follows:

Sub CreateBulletChart()

Dim cht As Chart

Dim srs As Series
Dim rng As Range

'Create an empty chart

Set cht = Sheets("Sheet3").Shapes.AddChart2.Chart

'Change chart title text

cht.ChartTitle.Text = "Bullet Chart with VBA"

'Hide the legend

cht.HasLegend = False

'Change chart type

cht.ChartType = xlBarClustered

'Select source for a chart

Set rng = Sheets("Sheet3").Range("A1:D4")
cht.SetSourceData Source:=rng

'Reverse the order of a catetory axis

cht.Axes(xlCategory).ReversePlotOrder = True

'Change the overlap setting of bars

cht.ChartGroups(1).Overlap = 100

'Change the gap space between bars

cht.ChartGroups(1).GapWidth = 50

'Change fill colour

Set srs = cht.SeriesCollection(1)
srs.Format.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(200, 200, 200)

Set srs = cht.SeriesCollection(2)

srs.Format.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(150, 150, 150)

Set srs = cht.SeriesCollection(3)

srs.Format.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(100, 100, 100)

'Add a new chart series

Set srs = cht.SeriesCollection.NewSeries
srs.Values = "=Sheet3!$B$7:$D$7"
srs.XValues = "=Sheet3!$B$5:$D$5"
srs.Name = "=""Actual"""

'Change chart type

srs.ChartType = xlXYScatter

'Turn error bars on/off

srs.HasErrorBars = True

'Change end style of error bar

srs.ErrorBars.EndStyle = xlNoCap

'Set the error bars

srs.ErrorBar Direction:=xlY, _
Include:=xlNone, _
Type:=xlErrorBarTypeCustom

srs.ErrorBar Direction:=xlX, _
Include:=xlMinusValues, _
Type:=xlPercent, _
Amount:=100

'Change color of error bars

srs.ErrorBars.Format.Line.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(0, 0, 0)

'Change thickness of error bars

srs.ErrorBars.Format.Line.Weight = 14

'Change marker type

srs.MarkerStyle = xlMarkerStyleNone

'Add a new chart series

Set srs = cht.SeriesCollection.NewSeries
srs.Values = "=Sheet3!$B$7:$D$7"
srs.XValues = "=Sheet3!$B$6:$D$6"
srs.Name = "=""Target"""

'Change chart type

srs.ChartType = xlXYScatter

'Turn error bars on/off

srs.HasErrorBars = True

'Change end style of error bar

srs.ErrorBars.EndStyle = xlNoCap

srs.ErrorBar Direction:=xlX, _
Include:=xlNone, _
Type:=xlErrorBarTypeCustom

srs.ErrorBar Direction:=xlY, _
Include:=xlBoth, _
Type:=xlFixedValue, _
Amount:=0.45

'Change color of error bars

srs.ErrorBars.Format.Line.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(255, 0, 0)

'Change thickness of error bars

srs.ErrorBars.Format.Line.Weight = 2

'Changer marker type

srs.MarkerStyle = xlMarkerStyleNone

'Set chart axis min and max

cht.Axes(xlValue, xlSecondary).MaximumScale = cht.SeriesCollection(1).Points.Count
cht.Axes(xlValue, xlSecondary).MinimumScale = 0

'Hide axis
cht.HasAxis(xlValue, xlSecondary) = False

End Sub

When to use the Macro Recorder?

The Macro Recorder is one of the most useful tools for writing VBA for Excel charts.  The DOM is so vast that it can be
challenging to know how to refer to a speci c object, property or method.   Studying the code produced by the Macro Recorder
will provide the parts of the DOM which you don’t know.

As a note, the Macro Recorder creates poorly constructed code; it selects each object before manipulating it (this is what you
did with the mouse after all).  But this is OK for us.  Once we understand the DOM, we can take just the parts of the code we
need and ensure we put them into the right part of the hierarchy.

← Loop through each item in a Data Validation list with VBA Resize a UserForm with VBA or Windows API →

3 thoughts on “VBA code for charts and graphs in Excel”

ramprakash says:

While updating the color for graph we are getting following error
Run time error ‘1004’
parameter not valid
Dim Cht1 As Chart
Set Cht1 = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects(“Chart 1”).Chart
Cht1.ChartArea.Select
Cht1.FullSeriesCollection(1).Format.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(255, 0, 0)
Cht1.ChartArea.Select
Cht1.FullSeriesCollection(2).Format.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(255, 0, 0)
Cht1.ChartArea.Select
Cht1.FullSeriesCollection(3).Format.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(255, 0, 0)
Cht1.FullSeriesCollection(4).Format.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(255, 0, 0)

Reply August 1, 2019 at 8:17 am

Excel Off The Grid says:

Hi Ramprakash – the VBA code above is applied to the Series 1, 2, 3 and 4, but you probably have
less than 4 series in the chart.
Also, you don’t need to use the Cht1.ChartArea.Select lines, they don’t achieve anything.

Reply August 2, 2019 at 7:02 am

pablo says:

Very useful!!! THANK YOU

Reply February 28, 2020 at 9:24 pm

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