Creating a Chart in WPF

• Download demo project - 300.1 KB

Introduction

This article shows how to make great looking charts in WPF. For demonstration of this, I have developed a WPF Project using Visual C# 2010 Express Edition. This project displays population of the top 5 most populous countries of the world using a column chart.

Background

Chart functionality in WPF is provided by the WPF Toolkit assembly. A reference to the System.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization.Toolkit.dll file is added to the project. Then the System.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization.Charting namespace is imported in the page as follows:

xmlns:cht="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization.Charting;
assembly=System.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization.Toolkit" 

Using the Code

To provide data for the chart, the following class is created:

public class Country
{
    public Country(string Name, long Population)    // Constructor
    {
        this.Name = Name;
        this.Population = Population;
    }
    public string Name                // Name Property
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
    public long Population                // Population Property
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
}

The following class represents the list of top 5 most populous countries:

public class CountryCollection :
Collection<Country> // Extending from System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection class
{
    public CountryCollection() // Constructor to add Country objects to the CountryCollection
    {
        Add(new Country("China", 1336718015));
        Add(new Country("India", 1189172906));
        Add(new Country("United States", 313232044));
        Add(new Country("Indonesia", 245613043));
        Add(new Country("Brazil", 203429773));
    }
}

Next a resource called CountryCollection is created in the XAML code as follows:

<Window.Resources>
    <local:CountryCollection x:Key="CountryCollection"/>
</Window.Resources>

Following is the XAML code for the Chart control:

<cht:Chart Name="populationChart" Title="Top 5 Most Populous Countries of the World" 
    Background="LightBlue">
     <cht:Chart.Series>
         <cht:ColumnSeries Title="Population" 
    ItemsSource="{StaticResource CountryCollection}" 
    IndependentValueBinding="{Binding Path=Name}" 
    DependentValueBinding="{Binding Path=Population}">
         </cht:ColumnSeries>
     </cht:Chart.Series>
</cht:Chart>

In the above code, the CountryCollection resource is bound to the ColumnSeries using the
ItemsSource property. The IndependentValueBinding property binds the country name and
DependentValueBinding property binds the population.

Following is the complete XAML code for the application:

<Window x:Class="WPFPopulationChart.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WPFPopulationChart"
        xmlns:cht="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls.
        DataVisualization.Charting;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization.Toolkit"
        Title="Population Chart" Height="350" Width="525">
    <Window.Resources>
        <local:CountryCollection x:Key="CountryCollection"/>
    </Window.Resources>
    <Grid>
        <cht:Chart Name="populationChart"
        Title="Top 5 Most Populous Countries of the World" Background="LightBlue">
            <cht:Chart.Series>
                <cht:ColumnSeries Title="Population"
                ItemsSource="{StaticResource CountryCollection}"
                IndependentValueBinding="{Binding Path=Name}"
                DependentValueBinding="{Binding Path=Population}">
                </cht:ColumnSeries>
            </cht:Chart.Series>
        </cht:Chart>
    </Grid>
</Window>

Points of Interest

Population data for the chart is taken from the following link:

• http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats8.htm

The population figures are as on December 2011.