How to display an FSharp.Charting graph in an existing form?

Question

I don't understand how to create a chart control and place the chart in an existing form. All the examples I found on the web show the chart in a new form but I would like to add the chart to one of my existing forms.

I'm thinking of something like this:

let form = new Form(Text="My form")
let lbl = new Label(Text="my label")
let chart = Chart.Area ["a", 10; "b", 20]

form.Controls.Add lbl
form.Controls.Add chart
// --->  The type 'ChartTypes.GenericChart' is not compatible with the type 'Control'   
Application.Run(form)

Thanks!

I meant controls instead of Container in the original code. Still doesn't work. I suppose there has to be something like a ChartControl somewhere — vidi, Jan 15 '14 at 05:18

score 15 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 15 '14 at 14:04

In order to achieve this you should wrap your chart into FSharp.Charting.ChartTypes.ChartControl and take care of correct docking. Also you should not mix Chart from FSharp.Charting with Chart from System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting.

A good staring point may be the following fully functional sample that works with the current FSharp.Charting v0.90.5; also references are required to System.Drawing and System.Windows.Forms:

open System
open FSharp.Charting
open FSharp.Charting.ChartTypes
open System.Drawing
open System.Windows.Forms

[<STAThread; EntryPoint>]
let main args =
    let myChart = [for x in 0.0 .. 0.1 .. 6.0 -> sin x + cos (2.0 * x)]
                    |> Chart.Line |> Chart.WithYAxis(Title="Test")
    let myChartControl = new ChartControl(myChart, Dock=DockStyle.Fill)
    let lbl = new Label(Text="my label")
    let form = new Form(Visible = true, TopMost = true, Width = 700, Height = 500)
    form.Controls.Add lbl
    form.Controls.Add(myChartControl)
    do Application.Run(form) |> ignore
    0

Thanks a lot! The ChartControl in the namespace FSharp.Charting.ChartTypes is not intuitive at all. And I couldn't find any example. — vidi, Jan 15 '14 at 14:49
The reason for not paying too much attention to usage of `FSharp.Charting` inside `WinForms` apps perhaps is that first and foremost use case for the library is scripting; then `WinForms` is quite outdated technology, more advanced `WPF` has example(s) AFAIK out-of-the box. — Gene Belitski, Jan 15 '14 at 14:58

How to display an FSharp.Charting graph in an existing form?

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