How to remove the Category axis lines and add Horizontal grid lines in Excel Chart using Java?

Question

I wanted to remove the lines that indicate a specific value on category axis, with lesser number of values it won't be much of a issue but with large amount of records a black strip is formed around the Horizontal axis. I also wanted to add the Horizontal gridlines to the chart. I am using Java and Apache POI for the Excel chart. I have used 200 values, but I have to plot values sometimes more than thousand in that case it forms a thick black strip.

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;

import org.apache.poi.ss.util.CellRangeAddress;
import org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.chart.AxisPosition;
import org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.chart.ChartTypes;
import org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.chart.LegendPosition;
import org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.chart.MarkerStyle;
import org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.chart.XDDFCategoryAxis;
import org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.chart.XDDFChartLegend;
import org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.chart.XDDFDataSource;
import org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.chart.XDDFDataSourcesFactory;
import org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.chart.XDDFLineChartData;
import org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.chart.XDDFNumericalDataSource;
import org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.chart.XDDFValueAxis;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFChart;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFClientAnchor;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFDrawing;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFSheet;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFWorkbook;

public class EasyChart {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {

        String path = ".\\ExcelFile";

        FileInputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream(path);

        XSSFWorkbook wb = new XSSFWorkbook(inputStream);

        XSSFSheet sheet = wb.getSheetAt(0);

        XSSFDrawing drawing = sheet.createDrawingPatriarch();
        XSSFClientAnchor anchor = drawing.createAnchor(0, 0, 0, 0, 7, 2, 12 ,18); //

        XSSFChart chart = drawing.createChart(anchor);
        chart.setTitleText("Trend");
        chart.setTitleOverlay(false);

        XDDFChartLegend legend = chart.getOrAddLegend();
        legend.setPosition(LegendPosition.BOTTOM);

        XDDFCategoryAxis bottomAxis = chart.createCategoryAxis(AxisPosition.BOTTOM);
        XDDFValueAxis leftAxis = chart.createValueAxis(AxisPosition.LEFT);
        
        int range= 200;
                
        XDDFDataSource<String> dates = XDDFDataSourcesFactory.fromStringCellRange(sheet,
                new CellRangeAddress(1, range, 0, 0));

        XDDFNumericalDataSource<Double> readIOP = XDDFDataSourcesFactory.fromNumericCellRange(sheet,new CellRangeAddress(2, range, 2, 2));


        XDDFNumericalDataSource<Double> writeIOP = XDDFDataSourcesFactory.fromNumericCellRange(sheet,new CellRangeAddress(2, range, 4, 4));

        XDDFLineChartData data = (XDDFLineChartData) chart.createData(ChartTypes.LINE, bottomAxis, leftAxis);

        XDDFLineChartData.Series series1 = (XDDFLineChartData.Series) data.addSeries(dates, readIOP);
        series1.setTitle("SP");
        series1.setSmooth(false);
        series1.setMarkerStyle(MarkerStyle.NONE);

        XDDFLineChartData.Series series2 = (XDDFLineChartData.Series) data.addSeries(dates, writeIOP);
        series2.setTitle("FP");
        series2.setSmooth(true);
        series2.setMarkerStyle(MarkerStyle.NONE);

        chart.plot(data);

        save(wb);
    }

    static void save(XSSFWorkbook wb) throws IOException {
        String path = "D:\\Trends";
        FileOutputStream file = new FileOutputStream(new File(path + "\\output.xlsx"));
        wb.write(file);
        System.out.println("File Saved Successfully");
    }

}

The resulting plot I desire

Answer 1

What you want set are properties of the chart axes.

To get rid of the tick marks on category axis, do set major tick marks of XDDFCategoryAxis bottomAxis to org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.chart.AxisTickMark.NONE .

...
XDDFCategoryAxis bottomAxis = chart.createCategoryAxis(AxisPosition.BOTTOM);
// set axis tick marks none
bottomAxis.setMajorTickMark(org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.chart.AxisTickMark.NONE);
...

To set the grid lines, do set org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.XDDFLineProperties for XDDFValueAxis leftAxis .

To get rid of the axis line of XDDFValueAxis leftAxis , do set line properties having org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.XDDFNoFillProperties .

...
XDDFValueAxis leftAxis = chart.createValueAxis(AxisPosition.LEFT);
// set major grid properties
org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.XDDFLineProperties lineProperties = new org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.XDDFLineProperties();
lineProperties.setWidth(1d);
lineProperties.setFillProperties(new org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.XDDFSolidFillProperties(org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.XDDFColor.from(org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.PresetColor.LIGHT_GRAY)));
leftAxis.getOrAddMajorGridProperties().setLineProperties(lineProperties);
// set axis line to no fill 
lineProperties.setFillProperties(new org.apache.poi.xddf.usermodel.XDDFNoFillProperties());
leftAxis.getOrAddShapeProperties().setLineProperties(lineProperties);
...

Result: