How to show the leader line on Excel chart?

14 Jul 20257 minutes to read

The following code snippets demonstrate how to show the leader line on Excel chart using C# (cross-platform and Windows-specific) and VB.NET.

C# [Cross-platform]

using (ExcelEngine excelEngine = new ExcelEngine())
{
    IApplication application = excelEngine.Excel;
    application.DefaultVersion = ExcelVersion.Xlsx;
    IWorkbook workbook = application.Workbooks.Create(1);
    IWorksheet sheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

    //Add data
    sheet.Range["A1"].Text = "Fruit";
    sheet.Range["B1"].Text = "Quantity";
    sheet.Range["A2"].Text = "Apple";
    sheet.Range["A3"].Text = "Banana";
    sheet.Range["A4"].Text = "Cherry";
    sheet.Range["B2"].Number = 40;
    sheet.Range["B3"].Number = 30;
    sheet.Range["B4"].Number = 30;

    //Add a Pie chart 
    IChart chart = sheet.Charts.Add();
    chart.ChartType = ExcelChartType.Pie;
    chart.DataRange = sheet.Range["A1:B4"];
    chart.IsSeriesInRows = false;
    chart.ChartTitle = "Fruit Distribution";

    //Enable data labels with values and leader lines
    IChartSerie series = chart.Series[0];
    series.DataPoints.DefaultDataPoint.DataLabels.IsValue = true;
    series.DataPoints.DefaultDataPoint.DataLabels.ShowLeaderLines = true;

    //Manually resizing data label area using Manual Layout
    chart.Series[0].DataPoints[0].DataLabels.Layout.ManualLayout.Left = 0.09;
    chart.Series[0].DataPoints[0].DataLabels.Layout.ManualLayout.Top = 0.01;

    #region Save
    //Saving the workbook
    FileStream outputStream = new FileStream(Path.GetFullPath("Output.xlsx"), FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
    workbook.SaveAs(outputStream);
    #endregion

    //Dispose streams   
    outputStream.Dispose();
}

C# [Windows-specific]

using (ExcelEngine excelEngine = new ExcelEngine())
{
    IApplication application = excelEngine.Excel;
    application.DefaultVersion = ExcelVersion.Xlsx;
    IWorkbook workbook = application.Workbooks.Create(1);
    IWorksheet sheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

    //Add data
    sheet.Range["A1"].Text = "Fruit";
    sheet.Range["B1"].Text = "Quantity";
    sheet.Range["A2"].Text = "Apple";
    sheet.Range["A3"].Text = "Banana";
    sheet.Range["A4"].Text = "Cherry";
    sheet.Range["B2"].Number = 40;
    sheet.Range["B3"].Number = 30;
    sheet.Range["B4"].Number = 30;

    //Add a Pie chart 
    IChart chart = sheet.Charts.Add();
    chart.ChartType = ExcelChartType.Pie;
    chart.DataRange = sheet.Range["A1:B4"];
    chart.IsSeriesInRows = false;
    chart.ChartTitle = "Fruit Distribution";

    //Enable data labels with values and leader lines
    IChartSerie series = chart.Series[0];
    series.DataPoints.DefaultDataPoint.DataLabels.IsValue = true;
    series.DataPoints.DefaultDataPoint.DataLabels.ShowLeaderLines = true;

    //Manually resizing data label area using Manual Layout
    chart.Series[0].DataPoints[0].DataLabels.Layout.ManualLayout.Left = 0.09;
    chart.Series[0].DataPoints[0].DataLabels.Layout.ManualLayout.Top = 0.01;

    //Saving the workbook
    workbook.SaveAs("Output.xlsx");
}

VB.NET [Windows-specific]

Using excelEngine As New ExcelEngine()
    Dim application As IApplication = excelEngine.Excel
    application.DefaultVersion = ExcelVersion.Xlsx
    Dim workbook As IWorkbook = application.Workbooks.Create(1)
    Dim sheet As IWorksheet = workbook.Worksheets(0)

    'Add data
    sheet.Range("A1").Text = "Fruit"
    sheet.Range("B1").Text = "Quantity"
    sheet.Range("A2").Text = "Apple"
    sheet.Range("A3").Text = "Banana"
    sheet.Range("A4").Text = "Cherry"
    sheet.Range("B2").Number = 40
    sheet.Range("B3").Number = 30
    sheet.Range("B4").Number = 30

    'Add a Pie chart
    Dim chart As IChart = sheet.Charts.Add()
    chart.ChartType = ExcelChartType.Pie
    chart.DataRange = sheet.Range("A1:B4")
    chart.IsSeriesInRows = False
    chart.ChartTitle = "Fruit Distribution"

    'Enable data labels and leader lines
    Dim series As IChartSerie = chart.Series(0)
    series.DataPoints.DefaultDataPoint.DataLabels.IsValue = True
    series.DataPoints.DefaultDataPoint.DataLabels.ShowLeaderLines = True

    'Manually resizing data label area using Manual Layout          
    series.DataPoints(0).DataLabels.Layout.ManualLayout.Left = 0.09
    series.DataPoints(0).DataLabels.Layout.ManualLayout.Top = 0.01

    'Saving the workbook
    workbook.SaveAs("Output.xlsx")
End Using

A complete working example to show the leader line on Excel chart using XlsIO is available on this GitHub page.