Dynamic (Cascading) Dropdowns that reset on change

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Dynamic dropdowns are a handy way to get your users to make choices based on what they’ve previously chosen, while steering them away from making invalid choices. Today we’re going to look at one that easily handles multiple levels, and we’ll take a look at what could go wrong. Let’s see one in action, shall we?

Right, what’s on the (dropdown) menu?
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_NoChoices

Fruit, anyone?
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_First Choice

*BING!*
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Not Done
Cool…check it out…as you can see from the above, the user gets prompted with “Choose…” whenever a subsequent choice must be made.

 

Ok, what kind of fruit should I have? Hmmm, let me see….eeny, meeny, miny, STRAWBERRIES!!!MO!
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Strawberries

*BING!*
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Still not finished

 

Ok, so what delights does Sub Category 2 have in store for me?
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Earliglow

Earliglow? Never heard of it. Sounds delicious…I’ll have those, please.

*BING!*
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Done

There, all done. Pretty nifty ehusers only get to see valid choices depending on what they chose last. So users simply can’t screw up!  Or can they?

[Evil user, determined to prove me wrong]: Wait a minute…I just remembered that mother expects me to eat my vegetables first, before I move on to dessert. So I better change that initial selection:

Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Change Initial Selection

*BING!*
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Embarrassing
What the…Strawberries are vegetables???

Damn…changing upstream dropdowns later on means those downstream choices can be flat out wrong! So how can we make this bulletproof?

Macros to the rescue

Yep, we’ll use some code to clear out any ‘downstream’ choices if anything ‘upstream’ changes. Let’s go back to that original strawberry fest:
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Done

Now watch what happens when our user subsequently decides they better vege out first:

*BING!*
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Downstream Reset

Ahh…look at that: the code realized that all those downstream choices are no longer valid. So it deleted them, and prompted the user to choose again. There. Now that IS bulletproof.

So let’s see…hmmm…for an appetizer, I’ll have baby carrots:
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Baby Carrots

 

And I already decided on Strawberries for pudding…
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Pudding

 

But what about my main course. Ah, yes, of course…
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Human

MEAT! Yummy. BURP!

What’s the recipe?

My approach draws on Roger Govier’s excellent sample file on the Contextures website. Be sure to check out that link to see Roger’s in-depth discussion of the formula magic behind this puppy…It’s genius.

In my Dynamic-Dependent-dropdowns-20140214, you’ll see that all the different categories used by the dropdowns are hosted in an Excel Table, that has the initial categories down the left hand side, and subsequent categories across the top:
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_val list

So how do these categories get used by the data validation dropdowns? Roger’s approach uses two dynamic named ranges to feed the data validation lists, one called MainList and one called SubList:
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Name Manager

Here’s the MainList formula:
=INDEX(Table1[[Choose…]],1):INDEX(Table1[[Choose…]],COUNTA(Table1[[Choose…]]))

…and here’s the SubList formula:
=IF(OR(Sheet1!B8="Choose…",Sheet1!B8=""),"",INDEX(Table1,1,MATCH(Sheet1!B8,Table1[#Headers],0)):INDEX(
Table1,COUNTA(INDEX(Table1,,MATCH(Sheet1!B8,Table1[#Headers],0))),MATCH(Sheet1!B8,Table1[#Headers],0)))

The SubList formula has a relative reference in it: whatever cell you use it in, it retrieves the value of the cell to the immediate left, and then it scans the column headers of our validations table (Table1) looking for the heading that matches that value. Once it’s found it, it simply uses the items listed underneath that heading.

Because this formula is relative, before you enter it into the Name Manager, you will need to first select cell C8, because the above relative formula refers to B8 – the cell to the left. (Note that it doesn’t matter what is in C8 or where your actual dropdown are…rather it’s just that the above formula happens to refer to B8, and because we want our formula to always reference the cell on the immediate left, then we’ve got to select the cell to the immediate right before we enter this relative formula into the Name Manager.

Also note that my version of Roger’s approach uses Excel Tables and the associated Structured References that Table functionality allows. My table is called Table1. Your validation lists MUST be held within an Excel Table (which requires Excel 2007 or greater) and you MUST change the Table1 references in the above formula to match the name of your table.

Excel Tables – known as ListObjects to VBA developers – were introduced in Excel 2007, and are a very powerful and simple way to store things like lists, chart data, and PivotTable data…especially if you might need to add more data to your spreadsheet at a later date, and want to avoid having to repoint all your formulas to include the additional data. If you’re not familiar with Excel Tables – or you don’t know what that Table1[#Headers] guff above means – then I strongly suggest you check out Chandoo’s Introduction to Structural References and this great video he did with MrExcel.

The way these two formulas work is very clever. That MainList named range only gets used by dropdowns in that very first ‘Main Category’ column:
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_MainList2

…and all other ‘downstream’ dropdowns – no matter what level they are – are fed by the SubList named range:
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_SubList2

The beauty of Roger’s approach is that it can handle any number of cascading levels, provided all the category names are unique. All you need to do is simply add the new subcategories to the right hand side of our validations table (Table1).

Let’s look at an example. If you look at the below screenshot, you’ll see that users can choose from a number of different kinds of meat:
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Meat List

Let’s add a further level that would give meat eaters some further choices relating to how their meat is prepared.

To set this up, all we need to do is take the individual items from that ‘Meat’ column and add each one as a new column header:
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_New Headers

Then we simply list the new options for each type of meat below the relevant header:
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Flesh out

Now here’s the magic: as soon as we add another column to our input table and set it up with data validation – which I did simply by clicking on the bottom right corner of the cell with the word ‘Human’ and dragging it across – then Excel picks up on the fact that there’s a sub-subcategory, and serves it up to us. *BING!* Order up!
Chandoo_CascadingDropdowns_Raw Person

Add code, and stir-fry for 10 milliseconds

As mentioned earlier, in addition to Roger’s great method, I’ve written some code that clears out any downstream entries in the event that an upstream entry is changed. It’s in the sample workbook already, all set to go. But here’s the actual code, for you VBA nerds. (Special thanks to Gabor Madacs for some enhancement suggestions)

Option Explicit

Const CHOOSE = "Choose…"

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
    On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
    Dim targetCell As Range
    Dim nextCell As Range
    Dim oldCalc As Excel.XlCalculation
    
    If Not Intersect(Target, [DataEntryTable]) Is Nothing Then
        If [Radio_Choice] = 1 Then
            With Application
                .EnableEvents = False
                .ScreenUpdating = False
                oldCalc = .Calculation
                .Calculation = xlCalculationManual
            End With
            
            For Each targetCell In Target
                'Clear any cells that use 'SubList' to the right of targetCell in the current table.
                If targetCell.Column < (targetCell.ListObject.ListColumns.Count + targetCell.ListObject.Range.Column - 1) Then 'there are table cells to the right
                    For Each nextCell In targetCell.Offset(, 1).Resize(, targetCell.ListObject.ListColumns.Count + targetCell.ListObject.Range.Column - targetCell.Column - 1)
                        If HasValidationFormula(nextCell) Then
                            If nextCell.Validation.Formula1 = "=SubList" Then nextCell.Value = ""
                        End If
                    Next nextCell
                End If
                
                'Perform different action depeding on whether we're dealing with a 'MainList' dropdown
                ' or a 'SubList' dropdown
                If HasValidationFormula(targetCell) Then
                    Select Case targetCell.Validation.Formula1
                    Case "=MainList"
                        If targetCell.Value = "" Then
                            targetCell.Value = CHOOSE
                        ElseIf targetCell.Value = CHOOSE Then
                            'Do nothing.
                        Else
                            targetCell.Offset(, 1).Value = CHOOSE
                        End If
                        
                    Case "=SubList"
                        If targetCell.Value = "" Then
                            targetCell.Value = CHOOSE
                        ElseIf targetCell.Offset(, -1).Value = CHOOSE Then
                            targetCell.Value = ""
                        ElseIf targetCell.Value = CHOOSE Then
                            'Do nothing
                        Else
                            Set nextCell = targetCell.Offset(, 1)
                            If HasValidationFormula(nextCell) Then
                                If nextCell.Validation.Formula1 = "=SubList" Then nextCell.Value = CHOOSE
                            End If
                        End If
                    End Select
                End If
            Next targetCell
            With Application
                .EnableEvents = True
                .ScreenUpdating = True
                .Calculation = oldCalc
            End With
        End If
    End If
    Exit Sub
ErrorHandler:
    With Application
        .EnableEvents = True
        .ScreenUpdating = True
        If oldCalc <> 0 Then .Calculation = oldCalc
    End With
    MsgBox Err.Description, vbCritical, Name & ".Worksheet_Change()"
End Sub

Private Function HasValidationFormula(cell As Range) As Boolean
    On Error GoTo ValidationNotExistsError
    If cell.Validation.Formula1 <> "" Then
        HasValidationFormula = True
    Else
        HasValidationFormula = False
    End If
    Exit Function
ValidationNotExistsError:
    HasValidationFormula = False
End Function
 


Hungry for more?


Here’s some related Posts at Chandoo.org:

Download the file

To see how this is done, download this file and enable macros:
Dynamic-Dependent-dropdowns-20140214

About the Author.

Jeff Weir – a local of Galactic North up there in Windy Wellington, New Zealand – is more volatile than INDIRECT and more random than RAND. In fact, his state of mind can be pretty much summed up by this:

=NOT(EVEN(PROPER(OR(RIGHT(TODAY())))))

That’s right, pure #VALUE!

Find out more at http:www.heavydutydecisions.co.nz

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63 Responses to “Custom Chart Axis Formating – Part 2.”

  1. Stephen says:

    Hui, these are cool little tricks. Not one I need today, but well worth remembering for future dashboards

  2. Ed says:

    I recently learned what I thought was a really simple but useful number format. A custom format followed by ;;; will not display 0 values. Example format #,##0.00,,;;; will display 12,570,000 as 12.57 and display 0 as blank. I found that this really helped me reduce some of the clutter on dynamic charts. Thanks for another good article.

  3. Fred says:

    Like! 🙂

  4. Fred says:

    hi Hui,

    Once I have created a custom format, how do I remove/delete it from the list again? I tried a few methods such as right click (no option to remove). I tried hi-lighting the custom format and hit the delete key. Nothing works.

  5. Hui... says:

    @Fred,
    Unlike the Custom Number format dialog for cells they don't have a Delete Button on the Chart Number Formats dialog, Maybe next version?
    .
    If you don't want to use your Custom Format select one of the built in formats.

  6. davidlim says:

    hi chandoo and all,

    great tips on the formatting.

    1 curious answer: Is it possible to highlight Sat/Sun for DATES on x-axis?

    assuming i have 1 month of daily product sales, x-axis = dates, y-axies = sum of sales.

    thanks!

  7. Hui... says:

    @Davidlim
    .
    You have limited options here as you can only use 3 conditional ranges in the [ ] brackets
    So you can do something like
    [Green][<40787]ddd;[Blue][>40788]ddd;[Red]ddd
    This will make:
    Dates earlier than September 2011 Green
    Dates after September 2nd 2011 Blue
    Dates on September 1 or 2nd, 2011 Red
    .
    Otherwise you can use the techniques where you use a Combination chart and color the weekend column a highlight color to emphasize them
    Have a look at: http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/08/26/combo-charts-to-group-times/
    Download the file just below:
    Download this excel combo chart and play with it to learn more

    Select the hidden bars and apply a fill

  8. Fowmy says:

    Great post,

    I would like to know a way to apply custom formatting to the horizontal axis.
    Suppose, I want to highlight F,G & H in Red

  9. Hui... says:

    @Fowmy
    As far as I'm aware it can't be done using Custom Formats
    You can of course use cells lined up under the chart and do the Conditional Formatting in those cells

  10. Donald says:

    @Hui:
    How do I get the number formats to work on a Dynamic Chart.i.e: Chart with different scaling based on different data sources. For example, if I have five KPI and each have a Target, how do I get the chart to dynamically change number format based on the data selected?

  11. Hui... says:

    @Donald
    Have a read of this Forum and my comments and see if that helps you
    http://chandoo.org/forums/topic/making-vlookup-recieve-multiple-formats-of-data

  12. Donald says:

    @Hui: Thanx for the speedy comment, I've checked the link and your last comment is almost what I need but I can't get it right for my application. See below my problems. Data below is displayed on the dynamic graph. The Graph only shows two data lines Target and the actual KPI data. on the data line I won't to highlight the numbers based on the info below relative to the Target line.
    KPI Target GREEN ORANGE RED
    DCR 1 and 1.2
    BSS Setup 99 >99 95> and <99 <95
    TCH BLK 0.5 and 1
    SD BLK 0.5 and 1
    UL_TBF S_Rate 90 >85 85> and <90 85 85> and <90 <85

  13. Hui... says:

    @Donald
    Do you want to email me this file
    I'm struggling to visualise this
    add instructions please

  14. Jonas says:

    I remember seeing a blog post some time ago about the number format colors. The default green color is ugly, and there was some neat trick to change that into more dark green version. I think it had to do with assigning some code instead of [green].

  15. Donald says:

    @Hui: I just forward you a mail now. I've also noticed that the custom only allows two conditions and I struggling to put more custom for same chart. As indicated, the graph has different target format i.e 1% and 95%.

  16. Oleksiy says:

    @Donald: I'm not sure what do you want to get in your case, here is what I've used in my dashboard for different KPI values:
    [50000]$#,K;0
    I have %'s, monthly sales amounts (all > $50000) and invoice counts. However I didn't apply this formatting to the axis number format - it will always have 0 as 0.00% - any ideas how to avoid this?

  17. Oleksiy says:

    Formatting in my comment above should be as following: [50000]$#,K;0

  18. Oleksiy says:

    one more time: [50000]$#,K;0

  19. Donald says:

    @Oleksiy: Follow link on Hui comment (11). Looks like it might address your problem.

  20. Oleksiy says:

    @Donald: I have done similar for series values already, just for some reason Chandoo's website modified my comment from "/<1/0.00%; /50000/$#,K;0" where / - [ and ]. 🙂
    Problem is that I can't apply this to the axis format as it always has zero.

  21. Fred says:

    Thanks, Hui.

  22. Tamoghna Acharyya says:

    Hello Hui, Please suggest how can I highlight ( making it bold or colored) a particular month among 12 months that I put in X axis.

  23. Hui... says:

    You can use the same technique with Dates that are Dates, but not when they are Text.
    That is if your X-Axis has dates, apply a custom number format like
    [Red][<=40790]d-mmm;[Black]d-mmm
    that is Dates <= 4 Sept 2011 will be Red, others will be Black where 40790 is the serial number for 4 Sept 2011 You can change the Date Format d-mmm to whatever suits you . [Red][<=40790]d-mmm;[Black][<40798]d-mmm;[Green]d-mmm
    Red <=4 Sep Black < 12 Sep Green >= 12 Sep
    .
    The Date fomats can change as well
    [Red][<=40790]d mm;[Black][<40798]d-mmm;[Green]d mmmm yy
    Red <= 4 Sept; displayed as 4 09 Black < 12 Sept; displayed as 12-Sep Green >= 12 Sept; displayed as 12 September 11

  24. Tamoghna Acharyya says:

    Thanks a lot Hui for your great suggestion. So it is only possible for months not for any other texts!

  25. Hui... says:

    @Tamoghna
    Its possible for any Numbers, %, $, Dates or Times,
    Which are all numbers anyway.

    It is not possible for Text

    If you need to do text, you can consider using Text Boxes or cells behind the chart where you can apply conditional formats to.
    So instead of using the Built In axis labels, make the chart transparent and place a number of Columns behind the chart with the approriate text and Conditional Formats in it
    A similar approach can be done using Text Boxes linked to cells

  26. Linda says:

    Hui,

    This is great and very timely because I suddenly have a need for lables that change format according to the values - so thank you.

    A quick question however, on a slightly different issue. Is it possible to format the markers so they don't show for a zero value but do show for any value above or below zero.

    Thanks,

    Linda

  27. Hui... says:

    @Linda
    try a format like
    [red]0;[green]-2;;
    .
    Note the custom format layout is
    Positive;Negative;0;Text
    .
    so by having a third parameter of ;;
    you get no format when it is 0

  28. Linda says:

    Hui,
    Thanks for the quick response. However, I don't seem to know where to type the format. I can see how to do this for the Labels but not for the actual graph marker itself. Esentially I want the marker to show if there is a value, but not if it is 0.

    Appreciate your help.

    Linda

  29. Hui... says:

    @Linda
    Sorry, I'd misread your requirements
    Where your data is, change the formula to be
    =if(my formula=0, na(), my Formula)
    .
    You may have to change the settings
    Select chart
    Right Click, Select data
    Hidden & Empty cells
    Adjust to suit

  30. Linda says:

    Hui,

    Thank you so much that worked well. I had a couple of problems at first because I had the graph type set as a line and the #NA had no effect. However, once I changed it to XY scatter, your suggestion worked like a treat!

    Thanks so much for your help

    Linda

  31. Aashtee says:

    Hello Hui,
    I have a data validation cell (A1) with a dropdown list for "Qty" and "$$$".
    My data set is values that I plot asa Pie Chart (In Column B1).

    These values are conditionally read from 2 different tables depending on the drop down list selection for $$$$ or Qty.
    I have conditionlly formatted all cells in B1 to display number format as Number (0 decimal places) or Currency $ again dependent on selection made in A1.

    Now my pie chart is updating correctly based on my selections and data but the labels do not get formatted to Number or Currency automatically.
    How can I conditionally format the labels based on selection in A1?

  32. Hui... says:

    @Aashtee
    You can't conditionally format chart objects against another cell only against there own values.
    If the values for Qty and price are different
    ie: Price $100-200
    Qty 1-20
    you can use a Custom Number format like
    [Blue][>=100]$#,###.00 ;[Red][<100]#,###;
    .
    But if they overlap it can't be done

  33. Annie says:

    Hi Hui,

    I'm trying to customize the x-axis from 0,1,2,3,4,5 to read: 0, KG, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. How can I do this?

    Also, the x-axis figures are currently on top of my chart, how can I move these to be on the bottom?

    Thanks!

  34. Annie says:

    It's a clustered bar chart that I'm using to show when curriculum was developed for different subjects. The y-axis indicates the year the curriculum was developed and the x-axis corresponds to the grade level (KG is short for kindergarten, followed by Class 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5).

    • Hui... says:

      @Annie
      I'm struggling with an easy solution for this one
      One way would be to delete the axis altogether or use a Custom Number format like ;;;
      Then setup a manual set of cells with the 0 K 1 2 3 4 etc which would be located behind the chart and then resemble the Axis Labels
      or
      Setup a Text Box/es with the same Sequence 0 K 1 2 3 4 etc and place that where the axis would be
      Once properly located and sized, The Text Box could be grouped with the chart so that they remain fixed to each other.

    • Kyle McGhee says:

      Hi Annie,

      I think this might work for you...basically what Hui said but a couple small tweaks.

      use this custom format
      General;[<0]"0";"KG"
      It will make negatives appear as 0 and 0 appear as KG, positive numbers will remain as they are.

      Then select the x-axis and ctrl+1 to go to format axis.
      Axis Options
      1/Set Minimum to -1 (Fixed)
      2/Set Maximum to 5 (Fixed, optional)
      3/Vertical axis crosses; Axis Value = -1

      In your data, make sure that all data points relating to KG are 0.

      Your clustered bar chart should have 0 KG 1 2 3 4 5 for the x-axis labels.

      Kyle

  35. Annie says:

    THANK YOU SO MUCH!

    This worked perfectly. I really appreciate all of your help.

    Phew!

    Annie

  36. Kyle McGhee says:

    minor note on the customer format I posted...it doesn't need the [<0] in General;[<0]"0";"KG". You can just use General;"0";"KG"

  37. Majid says:

    hi drea,
    thank you so much !
    i am from iran.
    this site is very good for me.
    this site has very good information from excel.
    by

  38. Russ Urquhart says:

    I need to do something like your highlight thousands as K, but to this degree:

    1?      0.000001
    10?     0.00001                                                                                 100?    0.0001                                                                                  1m      0.001                                                                                   10m     0.010                                                                                   100m    0.100
    1       1.000                                  
    10      10.000                                                                                  
    100     100.000         
    1k      1000.000                                                                                10k     10000.000                                                                               100k    100000.000                                                                              1M      1000000.000                                                                             10M     10000000.000                                                                            100M    100000000.000                                                                           1G      1000000000.000                                                                          10G     10000000000.000                                                                         
    100G    100000000000.000   

    From what i've been told i can not express all of that as a chart label number format, so i was looking at other options.

    Within VBA and Excel, how can i apply a NumberFormat like this to a chart?

    Any help is greatly appreciated!

    Russ 

  39. Russ Urquhart says:

    Actually the numbers ghot screwed up when i pasted.

    They should be like

    1K     1000.0
    10K    10000.0
    100K    100000.0

    etc.

     

  40. Yousuf says:

    My y axis goes from 0 to 1 with increments of 0.1
    I want it do be displayed in terms of p10,p20 all the way to p100
    For ex instead of 0.1 i want p90 and instead of 0.2 i want p80 all the waiy to p0. Is this possible?

    • Hui says:

      @Yousuf
      You can't do maths in Number Formatting apart from the Power of 10 tricks discussed here: http://chandoo.org/wp/2012/01/31/custom-number-formats-multiply-divide-by-any-power-of-10/
      However you can still do what you want
      Setup your chart
      Select the Y Axis and set Max to 1, Min to 0 and Major Unit to 0.1
      With the Chart selected Add text boxes and type the text you want for each Axis Point eg: p10, p20 etc
      Locate the text boxes in the correct locations using the Axis as a guide
      Set the text size, font, Bold etc to suit
      Select all the text boxes and group them
      Select the axis and set the text color to None
       
       

  41. lonchas says:

    How can I use an image instead of a text on chart axes? I would like to use companies logos instead of using the names on x-axis. Is it possible?

  42. Bisal Kumar Garg says:

    I have data labels in percentage format. which custom format i should use to have green color fornt if more then 100% and red color font if less then 100%.

  43. Shelly says:

    I'm hoping you can help. I have a dynamic chart for financial data. Most of the charts have a y axis based on $ with a couple charts that are a %. I can not use a option mentioned above since some of the $s have a negative value. I tried conditional formatting the source, but the 'Link to source' does not pick up the conditional formatting. Is there a way to have the y axis dynamically change from $ to %. I am using a combo box to change the data on the chart.

  44. ERik says:

    The “linked” data from my table is conditional formatted to be red based off of some criteria. I want my chart axis to be red too, but it only picks up the number format, not the conditional formatting.

    Is there any way to link conditional formatting of sourced data to axis labels?

  45. Shabbir says:

    You are awesome chandoo. Thanks

  46. Louie says:

    Hi Chandoo,

    Your posts are very helpful.

    Is there a way to conditionally format the data label position/location (in addition color, as you have shown in this post)?

    I have some line charts with markers showing the same measure from year to year. Each chart has two lines. One of the lines is an average of participants in the group and stays the same. The other line is for each participant and gets updated dynamically to produce about 50 unique charts total. If I put the data labels "above" or "below," they look good for about half the participants, then overlap or are confusing next to each other for the remaining half of the participants (given that the one line is the average of all participants). Right, left, and center do not look good, as they overlap the lines. I tried using the Chart Tools---> Design---> Style 2, which makes the markers bigger and places the data label inside the marker. However, for the 3-4 participants per year who have about average values, the marker for the participant overlaps with that for the average and makes the labels unreadable.

    Thank you for any help you can offer!

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