Should I choose Line or FastLine in the Windows Forms Chart Control?

Question

I am currently using Microsoft chart control - the MSDN documentation for it is here

I am looking at the SeriesChartType documentation, which is mostly unnecessary, except for one question:

• What is the difference between Line and FastLine ?
• When should I approve one type over another?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

FastLine seems to be optimized for huge data sets where you spend a lot of data. You lose some features, such as showing markers that you don’t need with a large dataset.

If you have several tens of points, use Line ; if you have several hundred points, use FastLine .

FastLine Documentation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd489249.aspx

Line Confirmation: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd489252.aspx

Answer 2

From MSDN:

 The FastLine chart type is a variation of the Line chart that significantly reduces the drawing time of a series that contains a very large number of data points. Use this chart in situations where very large data sets are used and rendering speed is critical. Some charting features are omitted from the FastLine chart to improve performance. The features omitted include control of point level visual attributes, markers, data point labels, and shadows. 

eg. If you are going to display tens or hundreds of thousands of data points.

Link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd489249.aspx

Answer 3

Just found this and thought, if I do not need to use a point level indicator, markers, labels or shadows, why should I use a regular line? My advice would be if you do not need these 4 things, using the default fastline and fastpoint (faster scatter option).