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Chart.GetChartElement Method

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Excel Developer Reference

Returns information about the chart element at specified X and Y coordinates. This method is unusual in that you specify values for only the first two arguments. Microsoft Excel fills in the other arguments, and your code should examine those values when the method returns.

Syntax

expression.GetChartElement(x, y, ElementID, Arg1, Arg2)

expression   A variable that represents a Chart object.

Parameters

Name Required/Optional Data Type Description
x Required Long The X coordinate of the chart element.
y Required Long The Y coordinate of the chart element.
ElementID Required Long When the method returns, this argument contains the XLChartItem value of the chart element at the specified coordinates. For more information, see the “Remarks” section.
Arg1 Required Long When the method returns, this argument contains information related to the chart element. For more information, see the “Remarks” section.
Arg2 Required Long When the method returns, this argument contains information related to the chart element. For more information, see the “Remarks” section.

Remarks

The value of ElementID after the method returns determines whether Arg1 and Arg2 contain any information, as shown in the following table.

ElementID Constant Constant Value Arg1 Arg2
xlAxis 21 AxisIndex AxisType
xlAxisTitle 17 AxisIndex AxisType
xlDisplayUnitLabel 30 AxisIndex AxisType
xlMajorGridlines 15 AxisIndex AxisType
xlMinorGridlines 16 AxisIndex AxisType
xlPivotChartDropZone 32 DropZoneType None
xlPivotChartFieldButton 31 DropZoneType PivotFieldIndex
xlDownBars 20 GroupIndex None
xlDropLines 26 GroupIndex None
xlHiLoLines 25 GroupIndex None
xlRadarAxisLabels 27 GroupIndex None
xlSeriesLines 22 GroupIndex None
xlUpBars 18 GroupIndex None
xlChartArea 2 None None
xlChartTitle 4 None None
xlCorners 6 None None
xlDataTable 7 None None
xlFloor 23 None None
xlLeaderLines 29 None None
xlLegend 24 None None
xlNothing 28 None None
xlPlotArea 19 None None
xlWalls 5 None None
xlDataLabel 7 SeriesIndex PointIndex
xlErrorBars 9 SeriesIndex None
xlLegendEntry 12 SeriesIndex None
xlLegendKey 13 SeriesIndex None
xlSeries 3 SeriesIndex PointIndex
xlShape 14 ShapeIndex None
xlTrendline 8 SeriesIndex TrendLineIndex
xlXErrorBars 10 SeriesIndex None
xlYErrorBars 11 SeriesIndex None

The following table describes the meaning of Arg1 and Arg2 after the method returns.

Argument Description
AxisIndex Specifies whether the axis is primary or secondary. Can be one of the following XlAxisGroup constants: xlPrimary or xlSecondary.
AxisType Specifies the axis type. Can be one of the following XlAxisType constants: xlCategory, xlSeriesAxis, or xlValue.
DropZoneType Specifies the drop zone type: column, data, page, or row field. Can be one of the following XlPivotFieldOrientation constants: xlColumnField, xlDataField, xlPageField, or xlRowField. The column and row field constants specify the series and category fields, respectively.
GroupIndex Specifies the offset within the ChartGroups collection for a specific chart group.
PivotFieldIndex Specifies the offset within the PivotFields collection for a specific column (series), data, page, or row (category) field. -1 if the drop zone type is xlDataField.
PointIndex Specifies the offset within the Points collection for a specific point within a series. A value of – 1 indicates that all data points are selected.
SeriesIndex Specifies the offset within the Series collection for a specific series.
ShapeIndex Specifies the offset within the Shapes collection for a specific shape.
TrendlineIndex Specifies the offset within the Trendlines collection for a specific trendline within a series.

Example

This example warns the user if she moves the mouse over the chart legend.

Visual Basic for Applications 
  Private Sub Chart_MouseMove(ByVal Button As Long, _
        ByVal Shift As Long, ByVal X As Long, ByVal Y As Long)
    Dim IDNum As Long
    Dim a As Long
    Dim b As Long
    
    ActiveChart.GetChartElement X, Y, IDNum, a, b
    If IDNum = xlLegendEntry Then _
        MsgBox "WARNING: Move away from the legend"
End Sub

See Also