asked on

Excel VBA to find data type of chart axis

Hi Experts

I have some VBA and an Excel chart, I want some syntax so if the axis is a date type then it formats that date.

Currently I have

If Instr(selection.ticklabels.Numberformat,"yyyy") then
'change the number format

this works fine , but if a users runs the code and has a different time local settings it may not work, is there some code like

If selection.ticklabel.numberformat = xldate then
'change the number format

Many thanks

andrewssd3

I don't think you can do this a completely foolproof way, but I have used this in the past to check that the category axis is a date axis:

Sub Macro3()
    
    Dim s As Series
    With ActiveChart
        Set s = .SeriesCollection(1)
        With s
            If IsDate(CDate(.XValues(1))) Then
               MsgBox "It's a date axis"
            End If
        End With
    End With


End Sub

Open in new window

This obviously looks at the first series of the chart and checks that the first value is a date. If you wanted to be very careful, you could also check some more of theXValues. If your chart was quite complex and had some series plotted on secondary axes, you might have to check that the first series was relevant by checking which axis it was plotted on, but if you're incontrol of the chart and can guarantee its structure, this will be fine. You have to do the CDate because the XValues show up as numbers (e.g. 40544 = 1st Jan 2011), and you need to convert this to a date first. There's obviously a small risk that the value really is a number in the 40,000's which is why I say it's hard to be totally sure.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

andrewssd3

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial