GetChartElement Method

Microsoft Excel Visual Basic

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.

expression.GetChartElement(X, Y, ElementID, Arg1, Arg2)

expression    Required. An expression that returns a Chart object.

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 Arg1 Arg2
xlAxis AxisIndex AxisType
xlAxisTitle AxisIndex AxisType
xlDisplayUnitLabel AxisIndex AxisType
xlMajorGridlines AxisIndex AxisType
xlMinorGridlines AxisIndex AxisType
xlPivotChartDropZone DropZoneType None
xlPivotChartFieldButton DropZoneType PivotFieldIndex
xlDownBars GroupIndex None
xlDropLines GroupIndex None
xlHiLoLines GroupIndex None
xlRadarAxisLabels GroupIndex None
xlSeriesLines GroupIndex None
xlUpBars GroupIndex None
xlChartArea None None
xlChartTitle None None
xlCorners None None
xlDataTable None None
xlFloor None None
xlLegend None None
xlNothing None None
xlPlotArea None None
xlWalls None None
xlDataLabel SeriesIndex PointIndex
xlErrorBars SeriesIndex None
xlLegendEntry SeriesIndex None
xlLegendKey SeriesIndex None
xlSeries SeriesIndex PointIndex
xlShape ShapeIndex None
xlTrendline SeriesIndex TrendLineIndex
xlXErrorBars SeriesIndex None
xlYErrorBars 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.

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