Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Excel'

[rupesh]

As an extension to the Excel Graph *issue* and after several attempts (of failures), I'm stuck in a situation where I can go no further.

I need to have multiple graphs/charts in the same sheet as that of the corresponding data, and, particularly, display each bar in every chart with a different color. Colors are always unique in one chart, but could be redundant across many.

I know this code can be made shorter, and multiple lines of code can be singled out, and all that. All my focus is on the Excel Graph, and nothing else matters right now.

use strict;
use Win32::OLE;
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Excel';

# Start Excel and create new workbook with a single sheet
use Win32::OLE qw(in valof with);
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Excel';
use Win32::OLE::NLS qw(:DEFAULT :LANG :SUBLANG);

my (@Names);

$Win32::OLE::Warn = 3;

push @Names, ['loy', 13];
push @Names, ['toy', 12];
push @Names, ['mccoy', 05];
push @Names, ['roy', 47];
push @Names, ['loy', 24];
push @Names, ['toy', 05];
push @Names, ['joy', 24];

print "Start Excel\n";
my $Excel = Win32::OLE->new('Excel.Application', 'Quit');
$Excel->{Visible} = 1;
$Excel->{SheetsInNewWorkbook} = 1;
my $Book  = $Excel->Workbooks->Add;
my $Sheet = $Book->Worksheets(1);
$Sheet->{Name} = 'DepOne';

my $Range = $Sheet->Range("A1:B1");
$Range->{Value} = [qw(Name Hours)];
$Range->Font->{Bold} = 1;

print "Add data\n";
$Range = $Sheet->Range(sprintf "A2:B%d", 2+$#Names);
$Range->{Value} = \@Names;

print "Create chart\n";
$Sheet->Range("A:B")->Select;
my $Chart = $Book->Charts->Add;
$Chart->Chart->ChartWizard({Source =>$Sheet->Cells(15)});
$Chart->{ChartType} = xlColumn;
$Chart->Location(xlLocationAsObject, $Sheet->{Name});
# Excel bug: old $Chart has become invalid now!
$Chart = $Excel->ActiveChart;

# Add title, remove legend
with($Chart, HasLegend => 0, HasTitle => 1);
$Chart->ChartTitle->Characters->{Text} = "Department One";

# Fat candles with only 5% gaps
$Chart->ChartGroups(1)->{GapWidth} = 5;

sub RGB {
    my ($red,$green,$blue) = @_;
    return $red | ($green<<8) | ($blue<<16);
}

# White background with a solid border
$Chart->PlotArea->Border->{LineStyle} = xlContinuous;
$Chart->PlotArea->Border->{Color} = RGB(0,0,0);
$Chart->PlotArea->Interior->{Color} = RGB(255,255,255);

# Add 1 hour moving average of the Close series
my $MovAvg = $Chart->SeriesCollection(4)->Trendlines
             ->Add({Type => xlMovingAvg, Period => 4});
$MovAvg->Border->{Color} = RGB(255,0,0);

$Book->SaveAs('somefile.xls');
$Book->Close;

Items Pending:

1. Fill each column bar in a chart with a particular color
2. Put this chart in the same sheet along with the data in it

All thoughts are welcome

[maa]

If you plot the data by xlColumnClustered rather than xlColumns you get essentially the same graph (better arguably) and you get a different pretty colour for each column.

You can probably hack about with ActiveChart.Location Where:=xlLocationAsObject, Name:="DepOne" o get it in the same sheet although you'd need to re-position it afterwards.

Here's an amended version of your code. Works in Excel 97 on NT

use strict;
use Win32::OLE;
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Excel';

# Start Excel and create new workbook with a single sheet
use Win32::OLE qw(in valof with);
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Excel';
use Win32::OLE::NLS qw(:DEFAULT :LANG :SUBLANG);

my (@Names);

$Win32::OLE::Warn = 3;

push @Names, ['loy', 13];
push @Names, ['toy', 12];
push @Names, ['mccoy', 05];
push @Names, ['roy', 47];
push @Names, ['loy', 24];
push @Names, ['toy', 05];
push @Names, ['joy', 24];

print "Start Excel\n";
my $Excel = Win32::OLE->new('Excel.Application', 'Quit');
$Excel->{Visible} = 1;
$Excel->{SheetsInNewWorkbook} = 1;
my $Book  = $Excel->Workbooks->Add;
my $Sheet = $Book->Worksheets(1);
$Sheet->{Name} = 'DepOne';

my $Range = $Sheet->Range("A1:B1");
$Range->{Value} = [qw(Name Hours)];
$Range->Font->{Bold} = 1;

print "Add data\n";
$Range = $Sheet->Range(sprintf "A2:B%d", 2+$#Names);
$Range->{Value} = \@Names;

print "Create chart\n";
#$Sheet->Range("A:B")->Select;
$Sheet->Range("A1")->Activate;
$Sheet->Range("A1")->CurrentRegion->Select;
my $Chart = $Book->Charts->Add;
$Chart->{ChartType} = xlColumnClustered;
$Chart->SetSourceData({Source =>$Sheet->Range("A1")->CurrentRegion, Pl
+otBy=>xlRows});


$Chart->Location(xlLocationAsObject, $Sheet->{Name});
# Excel bug: old $Chart has become invalid now!
$Chart = $Excel->ActiveChart;

# Add title, remove legend
with($Chart, HasLegend => 0, HasTitle => 1);
$Chart->ChartTitle->Characters->{Text} = "Department One";
$Chart->Axes(xlCategory, xlPrimary)->{HasTitle} = 1;
$Chart->Axes(xlCategory, xlPrimary)->AxisTitle->Characters->{Text} = "
+Names";
$Chart->Axes(xlValue, xlPrimary)->{HasTitle} = 1;
$Chart->Axes(xlValue, xlPrimary)->AxisTitle->Characters->{Text} = "Hou
+rs";

# Fat candles with only 5% gaps
$Chart->ChartGroups(1)->{GapWidth} = 5;

sub RGB {
    my ($red,$green,$blue) = @_;
    return $red | ($green<<8) | ($blue<<16);
}

# White background with a solid border
$Chart->PlotArea->Border->{LineStyle} = xlContinuous;
$Chart->PlotArea->Border->{Color} = RGB(0,0,0);
$Chart->PlotArea->Interior->{Color} = RGB(255,255,255);

# Add 1 hour moving average of the Close series
my $MovAvg = $Chart->SeriesCollection(4)->Trendlines
             ->Add({Type => xlMovingAvg, Period => 4});
$MovAvg->Border->{Color} = RGB(255,0,0);

#$Book->SaveAs('somefile.xls');
#$Book->Close;

HTH - Mark

[rupesh]

maa,
Thanks for your post. Although I'm now able to format the color-context of the Chart, I'm facing a new problem now.

I have a worksheet that has data dynamically entered to it, in the form of tables (2 columns and 'n' rows). 25 - 35 such tables are possible in a single sheet.

A part of my code:

$column=1;
    foreach my $dept (sort keys %every_dept)
    {    
        $row=1;
        $Sheet->Cells($row++,$column)->{Value} = $dept;
        foreach (@{$every_dept{$dept}})
        {
            $Sheet->Cells($row,$column)->{Value} = $_;
            $Sheet->Cells($row,$column+1)->{Value} = <some-val>;      
+      
            $row++;
            
            #my $range = 'b'.$y;
            #$Sheet->Range($range)->Interior->{ColorIndex} =$y;
            #$Sheet->Range($range)->{Value} = $y;            
        }
        $column+=2;
    }

How do I draw separate charts for each table? I tried various loops, but I get charts which are totally irrelevant to the data.

Any ideas/solutions?

[maa]

If you can figure out how to build your charts you can iterate over them using:

#my $ChartObjects=$Sheet->ChartObjects();
foreach my $c (in $Sheet->ChartObjects() ) {
    #match the $c->Charttitle.Text property against some list?
    #There is a $c->{CodeName} property too... 
    #Store $Chart->{Name} at creation and check against that?
}

To make it easier you could try storing your tables in a format such as:

COLA  | COLB | COLC | COLD | COLE | COLF | COLG | ...
Label | Data |      | Label| Data |      |...
item  | item |      | item | item |      |...
item  | item |      | item | item |      |...
item  | item |      | item | item |      |...
item  | item |      | item | item |      |...
      |      |      |      |      |      | <blank row>
Title | txt  |      |      
Name  | $Chart->{Name}
Blah  |      |      |

Bad diagram... so you have all your tables separated by a column... under your data table is another table with metadata (name, title, xaxis text, y axis text... (cold just be a column)

You know your chart regions start in A1, C1, E1, etc so you select that cell when building and do a Range("E1")->CurrentRegion->Rows->Countto return the number of rows... +2 takes you to the row where your meta data is... you can then either use RANGE("E9") (or whatever) to assign the properties to the chart making it easy to update (not dynamically though) or save info about the chart.

I confused myself there - perhaps it'll help you though.

- Mark