How to create Excel box and whisker chart in C#, VB.NET?

3 mins read

This article explains how to create a box and whisker chart in Excel using Syncfusion Excel (XlsIO) library.

What is a box and whisker chart?

A box and whisker chart shows distribution of data into quartiles, highlighting the mean and outliers. Box and Whisker charts are most commonly used in statistical analysis.

Create Box And Whisker Chart in Excel

Box and Whisker chart

To create a box and whisker chart in Excel using XlsIO, you need to do the following steps.

Steps to create box and whisker chart:

Step 1: Initialize chart

Create a chart object by calling the worksheet.Charts.Add method and specify the chart type to ExcelChartType.BoxAndWhisker enum value.

            //Create the chart
            IChartShape chart = worksheet.Charts.Add();
 
            //Set chart type to BoxAndWhisker
            chart.ChartType = ExcelChartType.BoxAndWhisker;

Step 2: Assign data

Set a range of data from the worksheet to chart’s DataRange property. To plot the series values in column and categories in row, set chart’s IsSeriesInRows property to false.

            //Set region of Chart data
            chart.DataRange = worksheet["A1:D16"];
 
            //Set chart series in column for assigned data region
            chart.IsSeriesInRows = false;

Step 3: Apply basic chart elements

Add the basic elements like chart title and legend with the below list of properties.

ChartTitle of chart object.
Set TRUE to chart’s HasLegend property, to show the legend.

              //Apply chart elements
               //Set Chart Title
                chart.ChartTitle = "Box And Whisker Chart";
 
                //Set Legend
                chart.HasLegend = true;
                chart.Legend.Position = ExcelLegendPosition.Bottom;

Applicable properties of box and whisker chart

Below is the list of other properties that is applicable for a box and whisker chart.

GapWidth
ShowInnerPoints
ShowOutlierpoints
ShowMeanMarkers
ShowMeanLine
QuartileCalculation
Note:
1. Applying other properties unrelated to this chart might throw exception or the changes will not be reflected in the output document because those properties are not related to box and whisker chart.
2. As box and whisker chart is introduced in MS Excel 2016, it can’t be viewed in MS Excel 2013 and its earlier versions.

Download Complete Sample

Download input file with data

To know more about creating charts with various settings using Syncfusion Excel (XlsIO) library, please refer the documentation.

The following C#/ VB.NET complete code snippet shows the creation of box and whisker chart using XlsIO.

using Syncfusion.XlsIO;
using System.Reflection;
using System.IO;
 
namespace ChartSample
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            using (ExcelEngine excelEngine = new ExcelEngine())
            {
                IApplication application = excelEngine.Excel;
                application.DefaultVersion = ExcelVersion.Excel2016;
 
                //Open existing workbook with data entered
                Assembly assembly = typeof(Program).GetTypeInfo().Assembly;
                Stream fileStream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("ChartSample.InputTemplate.xlsx");
                IWorkbook workbook = application.Workbooks.Open(fileStream);
                IWorksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];
 
                //Initialize chart
                IChartShape chart = worksheet.Charts.Add();
                chart.ChartType = ExcelChartType.BoxAndWhisker;
 
                //Assign data
                chart.DataRange = worksheet["A1:D16"];
                chart.IsSeriesInRows = false;
 
                //Apply chart elements
                //Set Chart Title
                chart.ChartTitle = "Box And Whisker Chart";
 
                //Set Legend
                chart.HasLegend = true;
                chart.Legend.Position = ExcelLegendPosition.Bottom;
 
                //Positioning the chart in the worksheet
                chart.TopRow = 8;
                chart.LeftColumn = 1;
                chart.BottomRow = 23;
                chart.RightColumn = 8;
 
                //Saving and closing the workbook
                Stream stream = File.Create("Output.xlsx");
                workbook.SaveAs(stream);
            }
        }
    }
}

VB.NET

Imports Syncfusion.XlsIO
Imports System.Reflection
Imports System.IO
 
Namespace ChartSample
 
    Class Program
 
        Public Shared Sub Main(ByVal args As String())
            Using excelEngine As ExcelEngine = New ExcelEngine()
                Dim application As IApplication = excelEngine.Excel
            application.DefaultVersion = ExcelVersion.Excel2016
            'Open existing workbook with data entered
            Dim assembly As Assembly = GetType(Program).GetTypeInfo.Assembly
            Dim fileStream As Stream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("ChartSample.InputTemplate.xlsx")
            Dim workbook As IWorkbook = application.Workbooks.Open(fileStream)
            Dim worksheet As IWorksheet = workbook.Worksheets(0)
 
            'Initialize chart
            Dim chart As IChartShape = worksheet.Charts.Add
            chart.ChartType = ExcelChartType.BoxAndWhisker
            'Assign data
            chart.DataRange = worksheet("A1:D16")
            chart.IsSeriesInRows = False
 
            'Apply chart elements
            'Set Chart Title
            chart.ChartTitle = "Box And Whisker Chart"
            'Set Legend
            chart.HasLegend = True
            chart.Legend.Position = ExcelLegendPosition.Bottom
 
            'Positioning the chart in the worksheet
            chart.TopRow = 8
            chart.LeftColumn = 1
            chart.BottomRow = 23
            chart.RightColumn = 8
 
            'Saving and closing the workbook
            Dim stream As Stream = File.Create("Output.xlsx")
            workbook.SaveAs(stream)
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace