how to add sparkline to windows form application?

Question

I have a project in c# and I need to show sparkline graphs that there info come from .CSV file. Im working with Windows form application and i cant find anything that work on that. I need to have alot of sparkline graphs under each other.

do I need to change from Windows form ? if so to what? I cant do it as a web page.

my professore brought us this sites:

• http://blog.jimmy.schementi.com/2011/05/sparklines-in-wpf-and-silverlight.html
• http://omnipotent.net/jquery.sparkline/#s-about

P.S. I'm writing this in c#.

Answer 1

The first site your professor suggested can use WPF which is not web based.

May I suggest you go over MSDN - WPF and then turn to the site suggested?

Answer 2

You should definitely learn to use WPF, but it's possible to implement sparkline with winforms standard controls. Correct me if I'm wrong, but sparkline is a simple line chart.

Check out documentation for Chart control. You should set ChartType to SeriesChartType.Spline to draw sparkline.

Example: To achieve similar appearance like in the blogpost linked

var series = new Series("First")
                         {
                             ChartType = SeriesChartType.Spline, //line chart
                             ChartArea = "chartArea", 
                             Color = Color.White
                         };
//generating data
var random = new Random();
for (int i = 0; i < 50; i++)
{
    //random values
    series.Points.AddXY(i, random.Next(100));
}

//creating display area
var chartArea = new ChartArea("chartArea")
                            {
                                //hiding grid lines
                                AxisX =
                                    {
                                        LineWidth = 0,
                                        IntervalType = DateTimeIntervalType.NotSet,
                                        LabelStyle = {Enabled = false},
                                        MajorGrid = {LineWidth = 0},
                                        MajorTickMark = {LineWidth = 0}
                                    },
                                AxisY =
                                    {
                                        LineWidth = 0,
                                        LabelStyle = {Enabled = false},
                                        MajorGrid = {LineWidth = 0},
                                        MajorTickMark = {LineWidth = 0}
                                    },
                                BackColor = Color.Black
                            };

//creating chart control
var chart = new Chart {Dock = DockStyle.Fill, BackColor = Color.Black};
chart.ChartAreas.Add(chartArea);
chart.Series.Add(series);

//add chart control to form
Controls.Add(chart);

And the result is: