How to draw text onto an empty MS Chart ChartArea?

Question

I'm using Microsoft's Chart control to plot some series, but if I have no data, I want to display "No Data Series" on the area where the plot would be.

Like this:

similarpic http://blogs.telerik.com/Libraries/MetaBlogLib/WindowsLiveWriter-CreatingabasicChart_D20D-image_thumb.sflb

I have a hunch it has something to do with manually drawing some text onto the image, but I don't know where to start. Anyone?

Answer 1

You can create a post-paint event handler where you can paint your stuff:

mychart.PostPaint += new EventHandler<ChartPaintEventArgs>(PostPaintEventHandler);
...
static void PostPaintEventHandler(object sender, ChartPaintEventArgs e)
{
  //sender here is the chart... you can use that too.
  //use e.ChartGraphics object to paint something
  e.ChartGraphics.DrawString(...);
}

Use freeware ILSpy to look inside the MSChart dll. There are several overloads of Graphics.DrawString method. Use the one which fits best for you.

Hope this helps.