In continuation of my earlier post on ZedGraph example which plots a sinosoidal graph, I have extended it further to:

Add a new custom menu item in context menu(which appears on right click on the graph)

Export Graph plot data to CSV (coma separated values) file. Which can be opened by spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel and Open Office calc.

For the custom context menu, the code has been derived from ZedGraph Wikipage. The following is the code of the Windows Form which has the ZedGraph control.

[sourcecode language=’c#’]
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using ZedGraph;
using System.IO;

namespace ZedGraphTest
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private PointPairList m_pointPairList;
//CSV Writer
private StreamWriter m_CSVWriter;

public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
CreateGraph();
SetSize();

//csv
zedGraphControl.ContextMenuBuilder +=
new ZedGraphControl.ContextMenuBuilderEventHandler(MyContextMenuBuilder);
}

private void CreateGraph()
{
GraphPane myPane = zedGraphControl.GraphPane;

// Set the titles and axis labels
myPane.Title.Text = “ZedGraph Test”;
myPane.XAxis.Title.Text = “theta (angle)”;
myPane.YAxis.Title.Text = “Sin (theta)”;

// Make up some data points from the Sine function
m_pointPairList = new PointPairList();
for (double x = 0; x <= 360; x += 10) { double y = Math.Sin(x * Math.PI / 180.0); m_pointPairList.Add(x, y); } // Generate a blue curve with Plus symbols, LineItem _myCurve1 = myPane.AddCurve("Sin (theta)", m_pointPairList, Color.Blue, SymbolType.Plus); // Fill the pane background with a color gradient myPane.Fill = new Fill(Color.White, Color.FromArgb(220, 220, 255), 45F); //Make the MajorGrids of Axes visible myPane.XAxis.MajorGrid.IsVisible = true; myPane.YAxis.MajorGrid.IsVisible = true; // Calculate the Axis Scale Ranges zedGraphControl.AxisChange(); } private void Form1_Resize(object sender, EventArgs e) { SetSize(); } private void SetSize() { zedGraphControl.Location = new Point(10, 10); // Leave a small margin around the outside of the control zedGraphControl.Size = new Size(this.ClientRectangle.Width - 20, this.ClientRectangle.Height - 20); } private void MyContextMenuBuilder(ZedGraphControl control, ContextMenuStrip menuStrip, Point mousePt, ZedGraphControl.ContextMenuObjectState objState) { // create a new menu item ToolStripMenuItem _item = new ToolStripMenuItem(); // This is the user-defined Tag so you can find this menu item later if necessary _item.Name = "Export Data as CSV"; _item.Tag = "export_data_csv"; // This is the text that will show up in the menu _item.Text = "Export Data as CSV"; // Add a handler that will respond when that menu item is selected _item.Click += new System.EventHandler(ShowSaveAsForExportCSV); // Add the menu item to the menu,as 3rd Item menuStrip.Items.Insert(2, _item); } private void ShowSaveAsForExportCSV(object sender, System.EventArgs e) { try { //show saveAs CmdDlg saveFileDialog1.Filter = "CSV files (*.csv)|*.csv"; saveFileDialog1.ShowDialog(); m_CSVWriter = new StreamWriter(saveFileDialog1.FileName); WriteCSVToStream(); m_CSVWriter.Close(); MessageBox.Show("CSV File Saved", " ZedGraph ", MessageBoxButtons.OK); } catch (Exception ex) { m_CSVWriter.Close(); MessageBox.Show(ex.ToString()); } } private void WriteCSVToStream() { //First line is for Headers., X and Y Axis string _xAxisHeader = CheckCSVString(zedGraphControl.GraphPane.XAxis.Title.Text); string _yAxisHeader = CheckCSVString(zedGraphControl.GraphPane.YAxis.Title.Text); m_CSVWriter.Write(_xAxisHeader + "," + _yAxisHeader + "n"); //subsequent lines are having data for (int i = 0; i < m_pointPairList.Count; i++) { m_CSVWriter.Write(m_pointPairList[i].X + "," + m_pointPairList[i].Y + "n"); } } private string CheckCSVString(string _string) {//Check to see if there are any characters that can disturb the CSV delimeters. string _returnString = _string; if (_string.IndexOfAny("",x0Ax0D".ToCharArray()) > -1)
{
_returnString = “”” + _string.Replace(“””, “”””) + “””;
}
return _returnString;
}

}
}

[/sourcecode]

Update : Check out ZedGraph C# Graph Data Export to CSV Using a Custom Context Menu , It has code to make a custom context menu item and also export the graph plot data as CSV.

Zedgraph is a very good opensource C# graph plotting library. Check out more details at my earlier post on Zedgraph. I have gone a step forward and made availabe source code and exe of a sample Zedgraph application which lets you have Line Plot, Bar Graph and Pie Chart.

Download Source Code (Visual Studio 2005 project in C#)

Download EXE

Below are the Screenshots of the Window Application. Copy and paste 2 columns of data from your favorite spreadsheet(eg MS Excel, Open Office Calc etc). NewLine and Tab delimiters are identified and the data is sorted accordingly, and added to graph plots. The Zedgraph plot library is so easy to use, implement and extend that it just took an afternoon to come up with this Windows application, when I was trying to convince my cousin to use ZedGraph in his college project.

ZedGraph is also being used to plot graphs in IN-Motion, a Motion Simulation Addin for Autodesk Inventor which I am co-developing along with my mentor. We are using ZedGraph to plot Postition-Velocity-Acceleration data, and intend to use it further more in Force-Torque graphs etc. Thanks to ZedGraph team for such a wonderful effort 🙂

Figure 1: ZedGraph Sample Window Application

Figure 2: The plot data for Line Plot and BarGraph are copied from a spreadsheat (eg MS Excel) and pasted in the text area. The code then uses tab and newLine delimiters to arrange data for plotting.

Figure 3: Line Plot for the above data. Notice the Titles of the X and Y axes.

Figure 4: Bargraph for the above data.

Figure 5: Data for Pie Chart. Paste 2 columns from spreadsheet. You may also use normal textbox to get the data from the user.

Figure 6: Pie Chart for the above data.

Download Source Code (Visual Studio 2005 project in C#)

Download EXE