SAS/GRAPH Statements

Overview

SAS/GRAPH programs can use some of the SAS language statements that you typically use with the Base SAS procedures or with the DATA step, such as LABEL, WHERE, and FORMAT. These statements are described in the SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

In addition, SAS/GRAPH has its own set of statements that affect only graphics output generated by the SAS/GRAPH procedures and the graphics facilities Annotate and DSGI. Most of these statements are global statements. That is, they can be specified anywhere in your program and remain in effect until explicitly changed or canceled. These are the SAS/GRAPH global statements:

AXIS: modifies the appearance, position, and range of values of axes in charts and plots.
FOOTNOTE: adds footnotes to graphics output. This statement is like the TITLE statement and is described in that section.
GOPTIONS: submits graphics options that control the appearance of graphics elements by specifying characteristics such as colors, fill patterns, fonts, or text height. Graphics options can also temporarily change device settings.
LEGEND: modifies the appearance and position of legends generated by procedures that produce charts, plots, and maps.
NOTE: adds text to the graphics output. This statement is an exception because it is not global but local, meaning that it must be submitted within a procedure. Otherwise, the NOTE statement is like the TITLE statement and is described in that section.
PATTERN: controls the color and fill of patterns assigned to areas in charts, maps, and plots.
SYMBOL: specifies the shape and color of plot symbols as well the interpolation method for plot data. It also controls the appearance of lines in contour plots.
TITLE: adds titles to graphics output. The section describing the TITLE statement includes the FOOTNOTE and NOTE statements.

The above statements are described in this chapter, as well as the following two Base language statements that have a special effect when used with SAS/GRAPH procedures:

BY: processes data according to the values of a classification (BY) variable and produces a separate graph for each BY-group value. This statement is not a global statement. It must be specified within a DATA step or a PROC step.
ODS HTML: generates one or more files written in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). If you use it with SAS/GRAPH procedures, you can specify one of the device drivers GIF, ACTIVEX, or JAVA. ACTIVEX and JAVA are available only with GCHART, GCONTOUR, GMAP, GPLOT, and G3D. With the GIF device driver, the graphics output is stored in GIF files. With the ACTIVEX device driver, graphics output is stored as XML input to ActiveX controls. With the JAVA device driver, graphics output is stored as XML input to Java applets. The HTML files that are generated reference the graphics output. When viewed with a Web browser, the HTML files can display graphics and non-graphics output together on the same Web page.

For more information on the BY, LABEL, OPTIONS, and WHERE statements in Base SAS software, see SAS Language Reference: Dictionary.

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