13.5 Visualizing data with Excel

13.5 Visualizing data with Excel

F # provides us with an almost limitless amount of visual data, using standard. NET libraries, such as Windows Forms or WPF, or using DirectX to implement complex visualizations, or you can create your own visualizations using existing. NET libraries. In this chapter, our approach is slightly different and will use Excel to represent the data. You'll find that this is relatively easy to do because you can access Excel using. NET programming Interfaces (APIs), and there are other benefits of using Excel. Some operations are easier to implement using the GUI, so after you get the data, you can do the final processing in Excel. In addition, everyone is using Excel, which is an important publishing format.

Attention

The. NET Framework 4.0, which corresponds to the version of Visual Studio 2010, includes a new library for charting, which can be used in Windows Forms, server-side web site applications, and Silverlight. This library is fully managed, so it can be used directly in F #, just like any other. NET Library. If you need to display a chart in a standalone F # application, this library is definitely worth a look, and you can find examples of using it on the website of this book. In this chapter, we will focus on interactive and exploratory approaches, so using Excel, this is an important tool for interactive programming.

Excel API for. NET is exposed through the primary interop assembly (Primary Interop Assemblies,pia) and is installed with Visual Studio 20,081 and can be downloaded separately. Therefore, if you encounter any use problems, you can find the link on the website of this book. Now, let's take the first step toward Office programming.

13.5 Visualizing data with Excel