Formatting Basics

Axes host the main format settings for themselves and values on a chart. The axis properties that associated with formatting are Axis.FormatString and Axis.CultureName.

 

FormatString

The FormatString property uses the .net string format specifications to parse values.

For more info see:

• Standard Numeric Format Strings
• Custom Numeric Format Strings
• Standard DateTime Format Strings
• Custom DateTime Format Strings

 

Additional shortcuts and custom format strings are also available:

Shortcuts
• 'Currency' 
   Formats numeric values based on the currency of the machines current or specified culture.
• 'N:x'
   Shorthand format where 'x' specifies the number of decimal places for numeric values. i.e: 'N:2'

Custom Format Strings
• 'Q'
   With dates, 'q' will represent the quarter. For example: "Quarter: <%Value,q>"

• 'O' (Numeric Values)
   An ordinal number. Adds a suffix to numbers for example: 1st 2nd 3rd etc.

• 'O' (DateTime Values)
   Day as an ordinal number. 1st 2nd 3rd etc.

 

[C#]

Chart.DefaultDefaultAxis.FormatString = "Currency";

[Visual Basic]
Chart.DefaultDefaultAxis.FormatString = "Currency"

Sample Settings:
{n:0}
Result:  140 (Number)

d
Result:  1/2/2005 (Date)

CultureName

The CultureName property accepts names from this list . It is used to automatically determine the type of formatting used for numbers or dates by the specified culture and format values accordingly.

[C#]

Chart.DefaultDefaultAxis.CultureName = "en-US";

[Visual Basic]

Chart.DefaultDefaultAxis.CultureName = "en-US"

 

Element Value Formats

Element values on a chart are formatted based on the format settings of the axis related to the value used. This means that an element's YValue format will be based on the y axis and XValue based on the x axis format.

Assuming we have a chart where the x axis is time and y axis is numeric, the following code would properly format the element values.

[C#]

Chart.XAxis.FormatString = "d"; // A date format
Chart.YAxis.FormatString = "{n:0}"; // A numeric format

[Visual Basic]

Chart.XAxis.FormatString = "d" ' A date format
Chart.YAxis.FormatString = "{n:0}" ' A numeric format

Whenever an element or series value is used with multiple x or y axes, the format will be determined by the parent series axis.

Tutorials: Formatting Advanced

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