Statistical Graphics


Limitations of the ODS Statistical Graphics Subroutines

The ODS statistical graphics subroutines are intended to enable you to quickly and easily construct basic graphics. They are not intended to be a complete interface to the SGPLOT procedure. If you need to construct a complicated graph from within the SAS/IML language, use the technique that is shown in How the Graphs Are Created.

One of the limitations of the ODS statistical graphics subroutines is that only certain variables are written to a data set by the subroutines. The x and y arguments (the data) are written to a SAS data set. So, too, are the data that are specified by the FREQ=, CATEGORY=, GROUP=, and DATALABEL= options. If you want to use other variables (for example, for the YERRORLOWER= and YERRORUPPER= options in the SCATTER statement), you need to use the method that is shown in How the Graphs Are Created to write the data set and to create the graph.

Although the ODS statistical graphics subroutines are not comprehensive, they do show how to write modules that create graphs by calling the SGPLOT procedure from the SAS/IML language. The source code for the subroutines are available in the Sashelp.iml catalog.