ACC97: How to Change a Chart's Colors Dynamically

• Microsoft Access 97

SUMMARY

Advanced: Requires expert coding, interoperability, and multiuser skills.

You can change the colors of a chart dynamically to correspond with the data in the current record of a form or a report, or to reflect special conditions of the data. During the Current, Format, and Print events, the data displayed in a chart is not normally synchronized with the data in the current record of the form or the report. Because you must use a Visual Basic for Applications procedure to clear and reload the data of a chart every time that one of these events occurs, you can use the same procedure to change the colors of each data point on the graph.

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider or the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about Microsoft Certified Solution Providers, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/mcsp/

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

Q186855 ACC97: Microsoft Access 97 Sample Graphs Available on MSL

MORE INFORMATION

The following example demonstrates how to create a chart whose colors are dynamic.

CAUTION: Following the steps in this example will modify the sample database Northwind.mdb. You may want to back up the Northwind.mdb file and perform these steps on a copy of the database.

Modify the Query Product Sales for 1995

1. Start Microsoft Access and open the query "Product Sales for 1995" in the sample database Northwind.mdb.



2. Add the Shippers table to the query. Microsoft Access automatically creates a join between the ShipVia field in the Orders table and the ShipperID field in the Shippers table.



3. Drag the CompanyName field from the Shippers table to the first empty column on the query design grid. Leave the Total row for this field set to the default value of Group By.



4. Save and close the query.

Create the Chart

1. Create a new form based on the Categories table. Include only the CategoryID and CategoryName fields in the detail section of the form.



2. On the Insert menu, click Chart to create a chart in the detail section of the form.



3. In the first screen of the Chart Wizard, click Queries and select Product Sales for 1995. Click Next.



4. Move the CompanyName field from the Available Fields list to the Fields for Chart list. Then move the ProductSales field from the Available Fields list to the Fields for Chart list. Click Next.



5. Click Next in the chart type screen to select the default type of Column Chart.



6. In the layout screen of the Chart Wizard, click Next.



7. Click OK if you receive the following message You must add field CategoryID if you want to use this link.



8. In the Form Fields list, click CategoryName; in the Chart Fields list, click CategoryName, and then click Finish.



9. On the View menu, click Properties and change the Name property of the chart to "chtColorChart" (without the quotation marks).



10. Save the form as frmChartColors and switch to Form view. Notice that the columns corresponding to each of the three shippers are all the same color.

Create the Event Procedure

1. Open frmChartColors in Design view, and on the View menu, click Code.



2. Type the following lines in the Declarations section of the class module:

   
         Option Compare Database
         Option Explicit
         Option Base 1 

   Note that the first two lines may already be present in the Declarations section.



3. On the Tools menu, click References.



4. In the References dialog box, scroll down the Available References list and select the Microsoft Graph 8.0 Object Library. Click OK, and then close the module.



5. On the Edit menu, click Select Form; then, Click Properties on the View menu to open the property sheet of the form.



6. Click the OnCurrent property box, and then click the Build (...) button. In the Choose Builder dialog box, click Code Builder, and then click OK.



7. Set the form's OnCurrent property to the following event procedure:




       Private Sub Form_Current()

          Dim chtObj As Object, strRowSource As String
          Dim rsRowSourceFiltered As Recordset
          Dim intMaxShippers As Integer
          Dim i As Integer, j As Integer
          Dim strArrShipperNames() As String
          Dim intArrShipperColors() As Integer

          ' The color integers are those that are used
          ' by the QBColor function to assign point colors.

          Const cFederal_Blue = 1
          Const cSpeedy_Green = 2
          Const cUnited_Red = 4

          intMaxShippers = 3
          ' Place all the shipper name values
          ' into an array.
          ReDim strArrShipperNames(intMaxShippers)
          strArrShipperNames(1) = "Federal Shipping"
          strArrShipperNames(2) = "Speedy Express"
          strArrShipperNames(3) = "United Package"
          ' Place the shipper color values
          ' into an array.
          ReDim intArrShipperColors(intMaxShippers)
          intArrShipperColors(1) = cFederal_Blue
          intArrShipperColors(2) = cSpeedy_Green
          intArrShipperColors(3) = cUnited_Red

          Set chtObj = Me!chtColorChart.Object

          ' In the chart's RowSource, insert a WHERE
          ' clause based on the value of the form
          ' field contained in the chart control's
          ' LinkMasterFields property.
          strRowSource = Left(Me!chtColorChart.RowSource, _
             InStr(Me!chtColorChart.RowSource, "GROUP BY") - 1) _
             & "WHERE " & Me!chtColorChart.LinkChildFields & _
             " = '" & Me(Me!chtColorChart.LinkMasterFields) & _
             "'" & " " & Right(Me!chtColorChart.RowSource, _
             Len(Me!chtColorChart.RowSource) _
             - InStr(Me!chtColorChart.RowSource, "GROUP BY") + 1)
          Set rsRowSourceFiltered = CurrentDb. _
             OpenRecordset(strRowSource, dbOpenSnapshot)

          ' Check to see if the filtered recordset has any records.
          If rsRowSourceFiltered.BOF And _
                rsRowSourceFiltered.EOF Then
             MsgBox "There are no records to chart."
             Exit Sub
          End If

          ' Clear the rows required for the maximum number of
          ' data rows. The first row contains the column
          ' headers. Data rows being at the second row.
          With chtObj.Application.DataSheet
             For i = 1 To intMaxShippers
                .Rows(i + 1).Include = False
             Next
          End With

          ' Ensure the RecordCount value is updated.
          rsRowSourceFiltered.MoveLast
          ' Populate the chart's datasheet with the
          ' filtered recordset, starting with the
          ' datasheet's second row.
          rsRowSourceFiltered.MoveFirst
          For i = 1 To rsRowSourceFiltered.RecordCount
             For j = 0 To rsRowSourceFiltered.Fields.Count - 1
                ' Assign data to the datasheet cells starting
                ' at row 2, column 1.
                chtObj.Application.DataSheet. _
                   Cells(i + 1, j + 1).Value = _
                   rsRowSourceFiltered.Fields(j).Value
             Next
             rsRowSourceFiltered.MoveNext
          Next

          ' Loop through the recordset containing
          ' the chart's filtered RowSource.
          rsRowSourceFiltered.MoveFirst
          i = 0
          While Not rsRowSourceFiltered.EOF
             ' Index i synchronizes the Points collection
             ' index with the current recordset row.
             i = i + 1
             ' Loop through the shipper names array and look
             ' for a match with the field names of the chart's
             ' filtered RowSource.
             For j = 1 To UBound(strArrShipperNames) ' 1-based
                ' The first field in the recordset contains
                ' the shipper name. Some shippers may not
                ' be in the filtered recordset.
                If rsRowSourceFiltered.Fields(0).Value _
                   = strArrShipperNames(j) Then
                   ' Because every shipper has a corresponding color, the
                   ' arrays strArrShipperNames and intArrShipperColors
                   ' always contain the same number of elements.
                   ' Assign the color of the chart column, bar,
                   ' slice etc.
                   chtObj.SeriesCollection(1).Points(i). _
                      Interior.Color = _
                      QBColor(intArrShipperColors(j))
                End If
             Next
             rsRowSourceFiltered.MoveNext
          Wend

       End Sub 

8. Save the form and switch to Form View.



9. Notice that the three data points in the chart have different colors.

REFERENCES

For further information about manipulating a chart with Visual Basic for Applications code, see the file Vba8grp.hlp; this file is located in the Morehelp subfolder of the Valupack folder on your Microsoft Office 97 Professional Edition CD-ROM or your Microsoft Access 97 CD-ROM.

Additional query words: inf graph msgraph

Keywords          : kbdta IntpOlea IntpGrph 
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbhowto 

Last Reviewed: July 6, 1999