Introduction to SAS/GRAPH Software

Components of SAS/GRAPH Software

There are several components to SAS/GRAPH software.

Device-based SAS/GRAPH procedures

enable you to create a variety of graphs, including bar charts, pie charts, scatter plots, surface plots, contour plots, a variety of maps, and much more. The device-based SAS/GRAPH procedures include the GAREABAR, GCHART, GPLOT, GMAP, GBARLINE, GKPI, GCONTOUR, and G3D procedures, as well as others. These procedures use device drivers to generate output. SAS/GRAPH device drivers enable you to send output directly to your output device as well as create output in a variety of formats such as PNG files and interactive ActiveX controls or Java applets. This document, SAS/GRAPH: Reference, Second Edition, describes the device-based SAS/GRAPH procedures and how to use devices. See also Device-Based Graphics and Template-Based Graphics.

The Annotate Facility

enables you to generate a special data set of graphics commands from which you can produce graphics output. This data set is referred to as an Annotate data set. You can use it to generate custom graphics or to enhance graphics output from many device-based SAS/GRAPH procedures, including GCHART, GPLOT, GMAP, GBARLINE, GCONTOUR, and G3D, as well as others. For more information, see Using Annotate Data Sets.

Network Visualization (NV) Workshop

enables you to visualize and investigate the patterns and relationships hidden in network data (node-link data). Some common applications that use network data include supply chains, communication networks, Web sites, database schema, and software module dependencies. NV Workshop is designed for visualizing large networks. Using a combination of data tables, statistical graphs, and network graphs, NV Workshop enables you to extract information that would otherwise remain hidden. Help is available from the menu within the product. Network Visualization Workshop runs in Windows operating environments only. For additional information, see SAS/GRAPH: Network Visualization Workshop User's Guide.

SAS/GRAPH statistical graphics suite

is part of ODS Statistical Graphics (referred to as ODS Graphics for short). ODS Graphics is functionality for creating statistical graphics that is available in a number of SAS software products, including SAS/STAT, SAS/ETS, SAS/QC, and SAS/GRAPH. The SAS/GRAPH statistical graphics suite provides the following features:

SAS/GRAPH statistical graphics procedures: provide a simple syntax for creating graphics commonly used in exploratory data analysis and for creating customized statistical displays. These procedures include the SGPANEL, SGPLOT, and SGSCATTER procedures. In addition, the SGRENDER procedure provides a SAS procedure interface to create graphs using the Graph Template Language. These procedures are template-based procedures; they do not use devices like the device-based SAS/GRAPH procedures. For more information, see Device-Based Graphics and Template-Based Graphics and SAS/GRAPH: Statistical Procedures Guide.
Graph Template Language (GTL): is the underlying language for the default templates that are provided by SAS for procedures that use ODS Statistical Graphics. You can use the GTL either to modify these templates or to create your own customized graphs. Templates written with the GTL are built with the TEMPLATE procedure. For more information about Graph Template Language, see SAS/GRAPH: Graph Template Language User's Guide and SAS/GRAPH: Graph Template Language Reference.
ODS Graphics Editor: is an interactive editor that enables you to edit and enhance graphs that are produced by procedures that use ODS Graphics. You can use the ODS Graphics Editor to modify the existing elements of a graph such as titles and labels, or to add features such as text annotation for data points. The ODS Graphics Editor runs in Windows and UNIX operating environments only. For more information, see SAS/GRAPH: ODS Graphics Editor User's Guide.
ODS Graphics Designer: provides a point-and-click interface for creating ODS Graphics. Using the ODS Graphics Designer does not require knowledge of ODS templates or the Graph Template Language. With the ODS Graphics Designer, you can easily create multi-cell graphs, classification panels, scatter plot matrices, and more. You can save your output as an image file or as an ODS Graphics Designer file (SGD file) that you can edit later. The ODS Graphics Designer runs in Windows and UNIX operating environments only. For more information, see SAS/GRAPH: ODS Graphics Designer User's Guide.

For additional information on the ODS Statistical Graphics functionality, see SAS Output Delivery System: User's Guide and SAS/STAT User's Guide.

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