Algorithm for “nice” grid line intervals on a graph

Question

I need a reasonably smart algorithm to come up with \"nice\" grid lines for a graph (chart).

For example, assume a bar chart with values of 10, 30, 72 and 60. You k

Answer 1

I use the following algorithm. It's similar to others posted here but it's the first example in C#.

public static class AxisUtil
{
    public static float CalcStepSize(float range, float targetSteps)
    {
        // calculate an initial guess at step size
        var tempStep = range/targetSteps;

        // get the magnitude of the step size
        var mag = (float)Math.Floor(Math.Log10(tempStep));
        var magPow = (float)Math.Pow(10, mag);

        // calculate most significant digit of the new step size
        var magMsd = (int)(tempStep/magPow + 0.5);

        // promote the MSD to either 1, 2, or 5
        if (magMsd > 5)
            magMsd = 10;
        else if (magMsd > 2)
            magMsd = 5;
        else if (magMsd > 1)
            magMsd = 2;

        return magMsd*magPow;
    }
}