Getting started with .NET MAUI Cartesian Chart

10 Jul 202611 minutes to read

This section explains how to populate the Cartesian chart with data, a title, data labels, a legend, and tooltips, as well as the essential aspects for getting started with the chart.

To get started quickly with the .NET MAUI Cartesian Chart, you can check the following video.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure the following are set up:

  1. Install .NET 9 SDK or later.
  2. Set up a .NET MAUI environment with Visual Studio 2022 v17.12 or later.

Step 1: Create a new .NET MAUI project

  1. Go to File > New > Project and choose the .NET MAUI App template.
  2. Name the project and choose a location. Click Next.
  3. Select the .NET framework version and click Create.

Step 2: Install the Syncfusion® MAUI Charts NuGet package

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and choose Manage NuGet Packages.
  2. Search for Syncfusion.Maui.Charts and install the latest version.
  3. Ensure the necessary dependencies are installed correctly, and the project is restored.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure the following are set up:

  1. Install .NET 9 SDK or later.
  2. Set up a .NET MAUI environment with Visual Studio Code.
  3. Ensure that the .NET MAUI workloads are installed and configured as described here.

Step 1: Create a new .NET MAUI project

  1. Open the command palette by pressing Ctrl+Shift+P and type .NET:New Project and enter.
  2. Choose the .NET MAUI App template.
  3. Select the project location, type the project name and press Enter.
  4. Then choose Create project.

Step 2: Install the Syncfusion® MAUI Charts NuGet package

  1. Press Ctrl + ` (backtick) to open the integrated terminal in Visual Studio Code.
  2. Ensure you’re in the project root directory where your .csproj file is located.
  3. Run the command dotnet add package Syncfusion.Maui.Charts to install the Syncfusion® .NET MAUI Charts NuGet package.
  4. To ensure all dependencies are installed, run dotnet restore.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, ensure the following are set up:

  1. Install .NET 9 SDK or later.
  2. Set up a .NET MAUI environment with JetBrains Rider 2024.3 or later.
  3. Make sure the MAUI workloads are installed and configured as described here.

Step 1: Create a new .NET MAUI Project

  1. Go to File > New Solution, Select .NET (C#) and choose the .NET MAUI App template.
  2. Enter the Project Name, Solution Name, and Location.
  3. Select the .NET framework version and click Create.

Step 2: Install the Syncfusion® MAUI Charts NuGet package

  1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and choose Manage NuGet Packages.
  2. Search for Syncfusion.Maui.Charts and install the latest version.
  3. Ensure the necessary dependencies are installed correctly, and the project is restored. If not, Open the Terminal in Rider and manually run: dotnet restore

Step 3: Register Syncfusion handler

Make sure to add the namespace.

using Syncfusion.Maui.Core.Hosting;

Register the Syncfusion core handler in your CreateMauiApp method of MauiProgram.cs file to use Syncfusion controls.

public static class MauiProgram
{
    public static MauiApp CreateMauiApp()
    {
        var builder = MauiApp.CreateBuilder();
        builder
            .UseMauiApp<App>()
            .ConfigureSyncfusionCore()
            .ConfigureFonts(fonts =>
            {
                fonts.AddFont("OpenSans-Regular.ttf", "OpenSansRegular");
                fonts.AddFont("OpenSans-Semibold.ttf", "OpenSansSemibold");
            });

#if DEBUG
        builder.Logging.AddDebug();
#endif

        return builder.Build();
    }
}

Step 4: Define Model and View Model

Now, let us define a simple data model that represents a data point in the chart.

public class PersonModel      
{   
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public double Height { get; set; }
}

Next, create a PersonViewModel class and initialize a list of PersonModel objects as follows.

public class PersonViewModel  
{
    public List<PersonModel> Data { get; set; }      

    public PersonViewModel()       
    {
        Data = new List<PersonModel>()
        {
            new PersonModel { Name = "David", Height = 170 },
            new PersonModel { Name = "Michael", Height = 96 },
            new PersonModel { Name = "Steve", Height = 65 },
            new PersonModel { Name = "Joel", Height = 182 },
            new PersonModel { Name = "Bob", Height = 134 }
        }; 
    }
 }

Step 5: Import the Cartesian Chart namespace

Add the following namespace in your XAML or C#.

xmlns:chart="clr-namespace:Syncfusion.Maui.Charts;assembly=Syncfusion.Maui.Charts"
using Syncfusion.Maui.Charts;

Step 6: Add the Cartesian Chart component

Create an instance for the Cartesian Chart control. Set the PersonViewModel instance as the BindingContext of your page to bind PersonViewModel properties to the chart.

NOTE

Add namespace of PersonViewModel class to your XAML Page, if you prefer to set BindingContext in XAML.

ChartAxis is used to locate the data points inside the chart area. The XAxes and YAxes collection of the chart is used to initialize the axis for the chart.

As we are going to visualize the comparison of heights in the data model, add ColumnSeries to Series property of chart, and then bind the Data property of the above PersonViewModel to the ColumnSeries.ItemsSource as follows.

NOTE

The Cartesian chart has Series as its default content.

NOTE

You need to set XBindingPath and YBindingPath
properties so that chart will fetch values from the respective properties in the data model to plot the series.

<chart:SfCartesianChart>

    <chart:SfCartesianChart.Title>
        <Label Text="Height Comparison"/>
    </chart:SfCartesianChart.Title>

    <chart:SfCartesianChart.Legend>
        <chart:ChartLegend/>
    </chart:SfCartesianChart.Legend>

    <chart:SfCartesianChart.XAxes>
        <chart:CategoryAxis>
            <chart:CategoryAxis.Title>
                <chart:ChartAxisTitle Text="Name"/>
            </chart:CategoryAxis.Title>
        </chart:CategoryAxis>
    </chart:SfCartesianChart.XAxes>

    <chart:SfCartesianChart.YAxes>
        <chart:NumericalAxis>
            <chart:NumericalAxis.Title>
                <chart:ChartAxisTitle Text="Height(in cm)"/>
            </chart:NumericalAxis.Title>
        </chart:NumericalAxis>
    </chart:SfCartesianChart.YAxes>

    <!--Initialize the series for chart-->
    <chart:ColumnSeries ItemsSource="{Binding Data}"
                        XBindingPath="Name" 
                        YBindingPath="Height"
                        EnableTooltip="True"
                        ShowDataLabels="True"
                        Label="Height">
        <chart:ColumnSeries.DataLabelSettings>
            <chart:CartesianDataLabelSettings LabelPlacement="Inner"/>
        </chart:ColumnSeries.DataLabelSettings>
    </chart:ColumnSeries>

    <chart:SfCartesianChart.BindingContext>
        <model:PersonViewModel/>
    </chart:SfCartesianChart.BindingContext>

</chart:SfCartesianChart>
this.BindingContext = new PersonViewModel();   
SfCartesianChart chart = new SfCartesianChart();

chart.Title = new Label()
{
    Text = "Height Comparison"
};

chart.Legend = new ChartLegend ();

CategoryAxis primaryAxis = new CategoryAxis();
primaryAxis.Title = new ChartAxisTitle()
{
    Text = "Name",
};
chart.XAxes.Add(primaryAxis);

NumericalAxis secondaryAxis = new NumericalAxis();
secondaryAxis.Title = new ChartAxisTitle()
{
    Text= "Height(in cm)",
};
chart.YAxes.Add(secondaryAxis);

ColumnSeries series = new ColumnSeries()
{
    ItemsSource = (new PersonViewModel()).Data,
    XBindingPath = "Name",
    YBindingPath = "Height",
    ShowDataLabels = true,
    EnableTooltip = true,
    Label = "Height",
    DataLabelSettings = new CartesianDataLabelSettings()
    {
        LabelPlacement = DataLabelPlacement.Inner
    }              
};  

chart.Series.Add(series);

The following screenshot illustrates the result of the above code.

Getting started for .NET MAUI Cartesian Chart

You can download the Cartesian Chart Getting Started sample from GitHub.