Example 11.4 Highlighting Combinations of Categories

[See PARETO11 in the SAS/QC Sample Library]In some applications, it is useful to classify the categories into groups that are not necessarily related to frequency. This example, which is a continuation of Example 11.2, shows how you can display this classification with a bar legend.

Suppose that Contamination and Metallization are high priority problems, Oxide Defect is a medium priority problem, and all other categories are low priority problems. Begin by adding this information to the data set Failure4.

data Failure4;
   length priority $ 16 ;
   set Failure4;
   if Cause = 'Contamination' or
      Cause = 'Metallization'
   then do;
      priority = 'High' ;
   end;
   else
   if Cause = 'Oxide Defect'
   then do;
      priority = 'Medium' ;
   end;
   else do;
      priority = 'Low' ;
   end;
run;

The variable PRIORITY indicates the priority, and the variables COLOR and PATTERN (character variables of length eight) provide colors and patterns corresponding to the levels of PRIORITY. The pattern values 'S' and 'M5X45' correspond to a solid fill and a crosshatched fill, respectively.

The following statements specify PRIORITY as a BARLEGEND= variable, COLOR as a CBARS= variable, and PATTERN as a PBARS= variable:

title 'Which Problems Take Priority?';
proc pareto data=Failure4;
   vbar Cause / class       = ( Process Day )
                freq        = Counts
                nrows       = 2
                ncols       = 5
                last        = 'Miscellaneous'
                scale       = count
                bars        = ( priority )
                barlegend   = ( priority )
                barleglabel = 'Priority:'
                catleglabel = 'Failure Causes:'
                intertile   = 1.0
                nohlabel
                nocurve
                nlegend ;
run;

Note that the BARLEGEND=, CBARS=, and PBARS= variable names are enclosed in parentheses. (Parentheses are not used when you specify fixed colors and patterns with the CBARS= and PBARS= options, as in Example 11.2.)

The chart is displayed in Output 11.4.1. The levels of the BARLEGEND= variable are the values displayed in the legend labeled Priority: at the bottom of the chart.

In general, when you create CBARS=, PBARS=, and BARLEGEND= variables, their values must be consistent and unambiguous. You must assign distinct color and pattern values to the CBARS= and PBARS= variables for each level of the BARLEGEND= variable. It is not necessary to specify a PBARS= variable to accompany a BARLEGEND= variable, and if a PBARS= variable is omitted, the bars are filled with solid colors.

For further details, see the entries for the BARLEGEND=, CBARS=, and PBARS= options in Dictionary of Options.

Output 11.4.1 Highlighting Selected Subsets of Categories