Create Chart from Array data and not range

Question

is it possible to create a Chart (e.g. Double Y-Axis Line Chart) not from Ranges, but from Array data? If so, how?

Answer 1

Yes. You can assign arrays to the XValues and Values properties of a Series object on a chart. Example:

Dim c As Chart
Dim s As Series
Dim myData As Variant

Set c = ActiveChart ' Assumes a chart is currently active in Excel...
Set s = c.SeriesCollection(1)

myData = Array(9, 6, 7, 1) ' or whatever
s.Values = myData

Answer 2

You can assign arrays to chart series in Excel 2007 onwards but in previous versions I believe there is a 255 character limit for the length of each series. A method I have used to work around this restriction is shown in the following random walk example:

Sub ChartArray()

Dim x(0 To 1000, 0 To 0) As Double
Dim y(0 To 1000, 0 To 0) As Double
x(0, 0) = 0
y(0, 0) = 0
For i = 1 To 1000
    x(i, 0) = i
    y(i, 0) = y(i - 1, 0) + WorksheetFunction.NormSInv(Rnd())
Next i

Charts.Add
ActiveChart.ChartType = xlXYScatterLinesNoMarkers
With ActiveChart.SeriesCollection
    If .Count = 0 Then .NewSeries
    If Val(Application.Version) >= 12 Then
        .Item(1).Values = y
        .Item(1).XValues = x
    Else
        .Item(1).Select
        Names.Add "_", x
        ExecuteExcel4Macro "series.x(!_)"
        Names.Add "_", y
        ExecuteExcel4Macro "series.y(,!_)"
        Names("_").Delete
    End If
End With
ActiveChart.ChartArea.Select

End Sub

An alternative method is to assign names to the arrays (similar to above workaround) and then set the series to refer to the assigned names. This works ok in all versions as long as you save in xls format, but there appears to be a length limitation for named arrays of 8192 characters when saving to the new xlsx/xlsm/xlsb formats.