Question

How do I retrieve the max and min values of an excel chart series collection as well as the position of the same on the chart? I want to calculate where the label should be for each point in the series and move it accordingly.

I’m doing this to make them look nice, in case your wondering. The numbers tend to get all messed up if I just blindly move the labels. I’m sure I could have the number at the base of the chart, but that’s not what I’m trying to do. It doesn’t help much that the Chart object is hard to get to work with the Object Listing thing-a-ma-jig (that whatcha-ma-call-it that pops up when you hit period after an object name).

Edit: What I’m trying to achieve is the retrieval of the highest(max) and lowest(min) values of a certain series of an excel chart. I also want to get their positions on the chart itself (from the top or left). I know which way to look, but if you give the code to check which way to measure that will be a bonus. See the drawing below.

   -------------------Left------------------------------------- >
  |        ________________________________________
  |       |                                        |
  |   225 |----------------------------------------|max (highest)
  |   200 |                                        |
  |   175 |                                        |
  |   150 |            -----                       |
|Top| 125 |           /     \                      |
  |   100 |          /       \                     |
  |    75 |   -------         \                    |
  |    50 |  /                 --------------\     |
  |    25 | /                                 \    |
 \|/    0 |----------------------------------------|min (lowest)
  V       |________________________________________|

Answer 1

Well, after some more experimenting (which is one thing VBA is made for) I got it. My specific case has two bar series that are on top of each other. The code is rather long, but it is lightening fast. I think I learned a bit about how to speed up vba in the process!

Sub AdjustReportChart()
    'main report chart
    Dim mrc As Chart
    Dim sercol As SeriesCollection
    Dim axe As Axis, ser As series
    Dim poi1 As Point, poi2 As Point
    Dim i As Integer, j As Integer
    'select the chart
    If hwb Is Nothing Then Call SetGlobals
    Set mrc = mws.ChartObjects("Chart 1").Chart
    'delave all the needed vars
    Dim poi1pos As Double, poi1val As Double
    Dim min1 As Integer, max1 As Integer
    Dim poi2pos As Double, poi2val As Double
    Dim min2 As Integer, max2 As Integer
    'get the chart width params
    Dim width As Integer
    width = Int(mrc.PlotArea.InsideWidth)
    Set sercol = mrc.SeriesCollection
    Set axe = mrc.Axes(2, sercol(1).AxisGroup)
    min1 = axe.MinimumScale
    max1 = axe.MaximumScale
    Set axe = mrc.Axes(2, sercol(2).AxisGroup)
    min2 = axe.MinimumScale
    max2 = axe.MaximumScale
    'start adjusting. 
    For j = 1 To sercol(1).points.Count
        Set poi1 = sercol(1).points(j)
        Set poi2 = sercol(2).points(j)
        poi1pos = poi1.DataLabel.Left
        poi2pos = poi2.DataLabel.Left
        poi1val = poi1.DataLabel.Text
        poi2val = poi2.DataLabel.Text
        poi1pos = (poi1val / (max1 - min1) * width - 6) + 142
        poi2pos = (poi2val / (max2 - min2) * width - 6) + 142
        If poi2pos < poi1pos + (Len(Str(poi1val)) * 6) And _
            poi1pos < poi2pos + (Len(Str(poi2val)) * 6) Then
            poi2pos = poi1pos + (Len(Str(poi1val)) * 6)
        End If
        poi1.DataLabel.Left = poi1pos
        poi2.DataLabel.Left = poi2pos
    Next j
End Sub