## Using FusionCharts with ASP.NET (VB.NET) > Charting Data from an Array
In this section, we'll show you how to use FusionCharts and ASP.NET to plot charts from data contained in ASP.NET arrays. We'll cover the following examples here: Creating a single series chart from data contained in arrays Creating a multi-serise chart from data contained in arrays Before you go further with this page, we recommend you to please see the previous section "Basic Examples" as we start off from concepts explained in that page. The code examples contained in this page are present in Download Package > Code > VB_NET > ArrayExample folder.
Creating a single series chart from data contained in arrays
The code to create a single series chart is contained in SingleSeries.aspx and can be listed as under:
<%@ Page language="vb" Codebehind="SingleSeries.aspx.vb" AutoEventWireup="false" Inherits="InfoSoftGlobal.SingleSeries" %> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>FusionCharts - Array Example using Single Series Column 3D Chart </TITLE> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="Javascript" SRC="../../FusionCharts/FusionCharts.js"></SCRIPT> </HEAD> <body> <CENTER> <form id='form1' name='form1' method='post' runat="server"> <%=GetProductSalesChartHtml()%> </form> </body> </HTML>
In the above code, we first include FusionCharts.js file to enable us embed the chart using JavaScript. We then call method GetProductSalesChartHtml from the code behind to generate code for chart. And, the function GetProductSalesChartHtml() in code behind file SingleSeries.aspx.vb can be listed as under:
Public Function GetProductSalesChartHtml() As String 'In this example, we plot a single series chart from data contained 'in an array. The array will have two columns - first one for data label 'and the next one for data values. 'Let's store the sales data for 6 products in our array). We also store 'the name of products. Dim arrData(6, 3) 'Store Name of Products arrData(0, 0) = "Product A" arrData(1, 0) = "Product B" arrData(2, 0) = "Product C" arrData(3, 0) = "Product D" arrData(4, 0) = "Product E" arrData(5, 0) = "Product F" 'Store sales data arrData(0, 1) = 567500 arrData(1, 1) = 815300 arrData(2, 1) = 556800 arrData(3, 1) = 734500 arrData(4, 1) = 676800 arrData(5, 1) = 648500 'Now, we need to convert this data into XML. We convert using string concatenation. Dim xmlData As String 'Initialize <chart> element xmlData = "<chart caption='Sales by Product' numberPrefix='$' formatNumberScale='0'>" 'Convert data to XML and append Dim i As Integer = 0 Do While (i < arrData.GetUpperBound(0)) xmlData = (xmlData & ("<set label='" _ & (arrData(i, 0) & ("' value='" _ & (arrData(i, 1) & "' />"))))) i = (i + 1) Loop 'Close <chart> element xmlData = (xmlData & "</chart>") 'Create the chart - Column 3D Chart with data contained in xmlData Return InfoSoftGlobal.FusionCharts.RenderChart("../../FusionCharts/Column3D.swf", "", xmlData, "productSales", "600", "300", False, False) End Function
In this method, we define an array arrData to store sales data for 6 different products. The array has two columns - first one for data label and the next one for data values. We define a variable xmlData to store the entire XML data. To build the XML, we iterate through the array and using string concatenation. Finally, we render the chart using InfoSoftGlobal.FusionCharts.RenderChart() function and pass xmlData as dataXML. When you view the chart, you'll see a chart as under:
Creating a multi-series chart from data contained in arrays
Let us now create a multi-series chart from data contained in arrays. We create a file MultiSeries.aspx with the following code:
<%@ Page language="c#" Codebehind="MultiSeries.aspx.vb" AutoEventWireup="false" Inherits="InfoSoftGlobal.GeneralPages.ASP.NET.ArrayExample.MultiSeries" %> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>FusionCharts - Array Example using Multi Series Column 3D Chart </TITLE> <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="Javascript" SRC="../../FusionCharts/FusionCharts.js"></SCRIPT> </HEAD> <body> <form id='form1' name='form1' method='post' runat="server"> <%=GetProductSalesChartHtml()%> </form> </body> </HTML>
Again, we first include FusionCharts.js file to enable us embed the chart using JavaScript. After that, we call GetProductSalesChartHtml() method from the code behind to return HTML code for the chart. The GetProductSalesChartHtml() method in code behind page can be listed as under:
Public Function GetProductSalesChartHtml() As String 'In this example, we plot a multi series chart from data contained 'in an array. The array will have three columns - first one for data label (product) 'and the next two for data values. The first data value column would store sales information 'for current year and the second one for previous year. 'Lets store the sales data for 6 products in our array. We also store 'the name of products. Dim arrData(6, 3) 'Store Name of Products arrData(0, 0) = "Product A" arrData(1, 0) = "Product B" arrData(2, 0) = "Product C" arrData(3, 0) = "Product D" arrData(4, 0) = "Product E" arrData(5, 0) = "Product F" 'Store sales data for current year arrData(0, 1) = 567500 arrData(1, 1) = 815300 arrData(2, 1) = 556800 arrData(3, 1) = 734500 arrData(4, 1) = 676800 arrData(5, 1) = 648500 'Store sales data for previous year arrData(0, 2) = 547300 arrData(1, 2) = 584500 arrData(2, 2) = 754000 arrData(3, 2) = 456300 arrData(4, 2) = 754500 arrData(5, 2) = 437600 'Now, we need to convert this data into multi-series XML. 'We convert using string concatenation. 'xmlData - Stores the entire XML 'strCategories - Stores XML for the <categories> and child <category> elements 'strDataCurr - Stores XML for current year's sales 'strDataPrev - Stores XML for previous year's sales Dim xmlData As String Dim categories As String Dim currentYear As String Dim previousYear As String 'Initialize <chart> element xmlData = "<chart caption='Sales by Product' numberPrefix='$' formatNumberScale='1' rotateValues='1' placeValues" & _ "Inside='1' decimals='0' >" 'Initialize <categories> element - necessary to generate a multi-series chart categories = "<categories>" 'Initiate <dataset> elements currentYear = "<dataset seriesName='Current Year'>" previousYear = "<dataset seriesName='Previous Year'>" 'Iterate through the data Dim i As Integer = 0 Do While (i < arrData.GetUpperBound(0)) 'Append <category name='...' /> to strCategories categories = (categories & ("<category name='" _ & (arrData(i, 0) & "' />"))) 'Add <set value='...' /> to both the datasets currentYear = (currentYear & ("<set value='" _ & (arrData(i, 1) & "' />"))) previousYear = (previousYear & ("<set value='" _ & (arrData(i, 2) & "' />"))) i = (i + 1) Loop 'Close <categories> element categories = (categories & "</categories>") 'Close <dataset> elements currentYear = (currentYear & "</dataset>") previousYear = (previousYear & "</dataset>") 'Assemble the entire XML now xmlData = (xmlData _ & (categories _ & (currentYear _ & (previousYear & "</chart>")))) 'Create the chart - MS Column 3D Chart with data contained in strXML Return InfoSoftGlobal.FusionCharts.RenderChart("../../FusionCharts/MSColumn3D.swf", "", xmlData, "productSales", "600", "300", False, False) End Function
In this method, we define an array arrData to store sales data for 6 different products. The array has three columns - first one for data label (product) and the next two for data values. The first data value column would store sales information for current year and the second one for previous year. We define a variable xmlData to store the entire XML data. We also define categories, currentYear, previousYear variables to store XML data for categories elements, current year's dataset and previous year's dataset respectively. To build the XML, we iterate through the array and using string concatenation. We concatenate the entire XML finally in xmlData. Finally, we render the chart using FusionCharts.RenderChart() function and pass xmlData as dataXML. When you view the chart, you'll see a chart as under:
In Download Package > Code > VB_NET > ArrayExample, we've more example codes to create Stacked and Combination Charts too, which have not been explained here, as they're similar in concept. You can directly see the code if you want to.