BoxPlot Chart Type in ASP.Net

Background

ASP.Net Chart is a powerful control for creating interactive charts. Today we will discuss the BoxPlot chart type of ASP.Net. So let us start to learn about this chart type control step-by-step.

Let us explain it with a practical example by creating a simple web application.

Step 1

Use the following script to create and insert data into the table for the chart:

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[orderdet](
[id] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
[Month] [varchar](50) NULL,
[Orders] [int] NULL,
CONSTRAINT [PK_Order Table] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
[id] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
GO
SET IDENTITY_INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] ON
GO
INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] ([id], [Month], [Orders]) VALUES (1, N'Jan', 0)
GO
INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] ([id], [Month], [Orders]) VALUES (2, N'Feb', 5)
GO
INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] ([id], [Month], [Orders]) VALUES (3, N'March', 20)
GO
INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] ([id], [Month], [Orders]) VALUES (4, N'April', 40)
GO
INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] ([id], [Month], [Orders]) VALUES (5, N'May', 15)
GO
INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] ([id], [Month], [Orders]) VALUES (6, N'Jun', 60)
GO
INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] ([id], [Month], [Orders]) VALUES (7, N'July', 75)
GO
INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] ([id], [Month], [Orders]) VALUES (8, N'Aug', 80)
GO
INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] ([id], [Month], [Orders]) VALUES (9, N'Sep', 85)
GO
INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] ([id], [Month], [Orders]) VALUES (10, N'Oct', 100)
GO
INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] ([id], [Month], [Orders]) VALUES (11, N'Nov', 2)
GO
INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] ([id], [Month], [Orders]) VALUES (12, N'Dec', 90)
GO
SET IDENTITY_INSERT [dbo].[orderdet] OFF
Go

After running the preceding script the records in the table will look as follows:

Step 2

Create a Stored Procedure to fetch the records from the database.

Create procedure [dbo].[GetCharData]
(
@id int =null
)
as
begin
Select Month,Orders from Orderdet
End

Step 3

Create a Web Application. Create the website with:

"Start" - "All Programs" - "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010".
"File" - "New Project" - "C#" - "Empty Website" (to avoid adding a master page).
Provide the project a name such as "UsingBoxPlotChart" or another as you wish and specify the location.
Then right-click on the Solution Explorer and select "Add New Item" then select Default.aspx page.
Drag and Drop a Chart control from the ToolBox onto the Default.aspx page.

Now the Default.aspx source code will be as follows:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>
<%@ Register Assembly="System.Web.DataVisualization, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
Namespace="System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting" TagPrefix="asp" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
<title>Article by Vithal Wadje</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="Navy">
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<h4 style="color: White;">
Article for C#Corner
</h4>
<asp:Chart ID="Chart1" runat="server" BackColor="192, 64, 0" BackGradientStyle="LeftRight"
BorderlineWidth="0" Height="360px" Palette="None" PaletteCustomColors="128, 64, 0"
Width="380px" BorderlineColor="255, 128, 0">
<Series>
<asp:Series Name="Series1" YValuesPerPoint="12" ChartType="BoxPlot">
</asp:Series>
</Series>
<ChartAreas>
<asp:ChartArea Name="ChartArea1">
</asp:ChartArea>
</ChartAreas>
</asp:Chart>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Step 4

Create a method to bind the chart control. Then open the default.aspx.cs page and create the following function named Bindchart to bind the Chart Control as in the following:

private void Bindchart()
{
connection();
com = new SqlCommand("GetCharData", con);
com.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(com);
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
da.Fill(ds);
DataTable ChartData = ds.Tables[0];
//storing total rows count to loop on each Record
string[] XPointMember = new string[ChartData.Rows.Count];
int[] YPointMember = new int[ChartData.Rows.Count];
for (int count = 0; count < ChartData.Rows.Count; count++)
{
//storing Values for X axis
XPointMember[count] = ChartData.Rows[count]["Month"].ToString();
//storing values for Y Axis
YPointMember[count] = Convert.ToInt32(ChartData.Rows[count]["Orders"]);
}
//binding chart control
Chart1.Series[0].Points.DataBindXY(XPointMember, YPointMember);
//Setting width of line
Chart1.Series[0].BorderWidth = 10;
//setting Chart type
Chart1.Series[0].ChartType = SeriesChartType.BoxPlot;
//Hide or show chart back GridLines
// Chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisX.MajorGrid.Enabled = false;
// Chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisY.MajorGrid.Enabled = false;
//Enabled 3D
// Chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].Area3DStyle.Enable3D = true;
con.Close();
}

Now, call the preceding function on page load as in the following:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
Bindchart();
}
}

The entire code of the default.aspx.cs page will look as follows:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Data;
using System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting;
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
private SqlConnection con;
private SqlCommand com;
private string constr, query;
private void connection()
{
constr = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["getconn"].ToString();
con = new SqlConnection(constr);
con.Open();
}
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
Bindchart();
}
}
private void Bindchart()
{
connection();
com = new SqlCommand("GetCharData", con);
com.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(com);
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
da.Fill(ds);
DataTable ChartData = ds.Tables[0];
//storing total rows count to loop on each Record
string[] XPointMember = new string[ChartData.Rows.Count];
int[] YPointMember = new int[ChartData.Rows.Count];
for (int count = 0; count < ChartData.Rows.Count; count++)
{
//storing Values for X axis
XPointMember[count] = ChartData.Rows[count]["Month"].ToString();
//storing values for Y Axis
YPointMember[count] = Convert.ToInt32(ChartData.Rows[count]["Orders"]);
}
//binding chart control
Chart1.Series[0].Points.DataBindXY(XPointMember, YPointMember);
//Setting width of line
Chart1.Series[0].BorderWidth = 10;
//setting Chart type
Chart1.Series[0].ChartType = SeriesChartType.BoxPlot;
//Hide or show chart back GridLines
// Chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisX.MajorGrid.Enabled = false;
// Chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisY.MajorGrid.Enabled = false;
//Enabled 3D
// Chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].Area3DStyle.Enable3D = true;
con.Close();
}
}

Now, we have the entire logic to bind the chart from the database, let us run the application. The BoxPlot Chart will look as follows:

Now hide the chart Grid Lines as:

//Hide or show chart back GridLines
Chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisX.MajorGrid.Enabled = false;
Chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisY.MajorGrid.Enabled = false;

Then the BoxPlot chart will look as follows:

Now enable the 3D Style as in the following:

//Enabled 3D
Chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].Area3DStyle.Enable3D = true;

Now let us hide the GridLines in 3D Style Mode as:

//Hide or show chart back GridLines
Chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisX.MajorGrid.Enabled = false;
Chart1.ChartAreas["ChartArea1"].AxisY.MajorGrid.Enabled = false;

Now the BoxPlot Chart will look as follows::

Now from all the preceding explanations we saw how to create and use a BoxPlot chart.

Notes

Download the Zip file from the attachment for the full source code of the application.
Change the connection string in the web.config file to specify your server location.

Summary

My next article explains another chart type of ASP.Net. I hope this article is useful for all readers, if you have any suggestion then please contact me including beginners also.