Excel:...::Area(3pm)

✨ NAME ✨

Area — a whole class that writes Excel Area charts for you, bestie 💖 (it's Excel:...::Area(3pm), and yeah, the User Contributed Perl Documentation thing means some icon in the Perl community wrote it for us 🫶)

---

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

So the goal is a simple Excel file with an Area chart, using Excel::Writer::XLSX. It's giving:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Excel::Writer::XLSX;

my $workbook  = Excel::Writer::XLSX->new( 'chart.xlsx' );
my $worksheet = $workbook->add_worksheet();

my $chart     = $workbook->add_chart( type => 'area' );

# Configure the chart.
$chart->add_series(
    categories => '=Sheet1!$A$2:$A$7',
    values     => '=Sheet1!$B$2:$B$7',
);

# Add the worksheet data the chart refers to.
my $data = [
    [ 'Category', 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ],
    [ 'Value',    1, 4, 5, 2, 1, 5 ],
];

$worksheet->write( 'A1', $data );

__END__

slay. that's literally the whole thing 💅

---

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

This module implements Area charts for Excel::Writer::XLSX. No cap. The chart object gets created through the Workbook add_chart() method:

my $chart = $workbook->add_chart( type => 'area' );

Once you've got the object, you configure it with these methods that are common to all the chart classes (so you'll see them everywhere, not just here):

$chart->add_series();
$chart->set_x_axis();
$chart->set_y_axis();
$chart->set_title();

If you want the full tea on those four, it's all explained in detail in Excel::Writer::XLSX::Chart. And any class-specific methods or settings — if any — are explained below, so keep scrolling 🦋

🎀 Area Chart Subtypes 🎀

The "Area" chart module also supports these sub-types:

stacked
percent_stacked

You specify them at creation time via the add_chart() Worksheet method, like this:

my $chart = $workbook->add_chart( type => 'area', subtype => 'stacked' );

main character subtype energy, honestly 👑

---

🔥 EXAMPLE 🔥

Here's a complete example that shows off most of the available features when you're creating a chart. Iconic behavior.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Excel::Writer::XLSX;

my $workbook  = Excel::Writer::XLSX->new( 'chart_area.xlsx' );
my $worksheet = $workbook->add_worksheet();
my $bold      = $workbook->add_format( bold => 1 );

# Add the worksheet data that the charts will refer to.
my $headings = [ 'Number', 'Batch 1', 'Batch 2' ];
my $data = [
    [ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ],
    [ 40, 40, 50, 30, 25, 50 ],
    [ 30, 25, 30, 10,  5, 10 ],

];

$worksheet->write( 'A1', $headings, $bold );
$worksheet->write( 'A2', $data );

# Create a new chart object. In this case an embedded chart.
my $chart = $workbook->add_chart( type => 'area', embedded => 1 );

# Configure the first series.
$chart->add_series(
    name       => '=Sheet1!$B$1',
    categories => '=Sheet1!$A$2:$A$7',
    values     => '=Sheet1!$B$2:$B$7',
);

# Configure second series. Note alternative use of array ref to define
# ranges: [ $sheetname, $row_start, $row_end, $col_start, $col_end ].
$chart->add_series(
    name       => '=Sheet1!$C$1',
    categories => [ 'Sheet1', 1, 6, 0, 0 ],
    values     => [ 'Sheet1', 1, 6, 2, 2 ],
);

# Add a chart title and some axis labels.
$chart->set_title ( name => 'Results of sample analysis' );
$chart->set_x_axis( name => 'Test number' );
$chart->set_y_axis( name => 'Sample length (mm)' );

# Set an Excel chart style. Blue colors with white outline and shadow.
$chart->set_style( 11 );

# Insert the chart into the worksheet (with an offset).
$worksheet->insert_chart( 'D2', $chart, 25, 10 );

__END__

🫶 peep that array ref for the ranges: [ $sheetname, $row_start, $row_end, $col_start, $col_end ]. that's the alt way to do it, iykyk.

---

👑 AUTHOR 👑

John McNamara jmcnamara@cpan.org — legend, honestly 💜

---

🌈 COPYRIGHT 🌈

Copyright MM-MMXXV, John McNamara.

All Rights Reserved. This module is free software. It may be used, redistributed and/or modified under the same terms as Perl itself.

---

okay that's the whole page, bestie, you're SO ready to chart 💅 this was Excel:...::Area(3pm) from perl v5.40.1, dated 2025-12-22 — go forth and plot, mwah 🎀✨🦋