About the ODS Graphics Procedures :: SAS(R) 9.3 ODS Graphics: Getting Started with Business and Statistical Graphics

The ODS Graphics procedures produce plots for exploratory data analysis and for customized statistical displays. These procedures can produce a variety of single- and multi-cell plots and charts, including density, dot, needle, series, bar, histograms, box, and others. They can also compute and display loess fits, polynomial fits, penalized B-spline fits, reference lines, bands, and ellipses. Options are available for specifying colors, marker symbols, and other attributes of plot features.

These procedures use the Graph Template Language (GTL) to define the layout and details of a graph. Because SAS provides a default template for every graph produced by the procedures, you do not need to know anything about templates to create graphs with these procedures. You can create effective graphs with a minimal amount of learning and effort.

These are the ODS Graphics procedures:

SGPLOT

creates single-cell plots with a variety of plot and chart types and overlays.

SGPANEL

creates classification panels for one or more classification variables. Each graph cell in the panel can contain either a simple plot or multiple, overlaid plots. This procedure can create most of the plots that the SGPLOT procedure creates. For this reason, the two procedures have a similar syntax.

SGSCATTER

creates scatter plots and scatter plot matrices with optional fits and ellipses.

SGDESIGN

creates graphical output based on a graph file that has been created by using the ODS Graphics Designer application.

SGRENDER

produces graphs from graph templates that are written in the GTL. You can also render a graph from a SAS ODS Graphics Editor (SGE) file.

The procedures have two facilities that enable you to modify graph output:

The SG annotation feature enables you to add shapes, images, and other annotations to graph output. This feature is preproduction in SAS 9.3.
SG attribute maps enable you to control the visual attributes that are applied to specific data values in your graphs. For example, if an ODS Graphics procedure creates a graph that plots items sold in different countries, you can specify the display attributes for the sales data of each country. Attribute maps enable you to ensure that particular visual attributes are applied to data values in particular groups.