SAS ODS Graphics, sometimes
called SAS ODS Statistical Graphics, is SAS functionality that can
be used to create a wide variety of graphs. Many SAS procedures use
ODS Graphics functionality to produce graphs as automatically as they
produce tables. In addition, SAS provides a rich suite of ODS Graphics
software that facilitates the creation of custom, stand-alone graphs.
This suite consists of applications, procedures, and a template language
that enable you to create effective and attractive graphs. Whether
you are a novice SAS user or an expert SAS statistical user, you can
create graphs ranging from simple scatter plots and bar charts to
complex multi-page classification panels.
ODS Graphics is an extension
of the SAS Output Delivery System (ODS). ODS manages procedure output
and enables you to display the output in a variety of forms, such
as HTML, RTF, PDF, and others. Many familiar features of ODS for tabular
output apply equally to graphs. For example, if you specify an ODS
destination and style for a procedure, both the tables and graphs
created by the procedure are integrated in the ODS output destination.
Both outputs have the same style and share other features that were
specified in the ODS destination statement.
ODS Graphics produce
template-based graphs that use Graph Template Language (GTL) syntax.
GTL is a comprehensive language for defining statistical graphics
and provides the power and flexibility to create many types of complex
graphs. The appearance and layout of these graphs are controlled by
ODS style and graph templates.