Statistical Graphics Using ODS

You can enable ODS Graphics by specifying the following statement:

ods graphics on;

ODS Graphics remains enabled for all procedure steps until you disable it by submitting the following statement:

ods graphics off;

ODS Graphics might or might not be enabled by default. This depends on a number of factors. ODS Graphics is usually enabled by default in the SAS windowing environment; ODS Graphics is usually disabled by default when you invoke SAS in other ways. However, you can change these defaults in a number of ways. You can enable or disable ODS Graphics by default in an autoexec.sas file, a configuration file such as SASV9.CFG, or the SAS registry. You can change the default in the SAS windowing environment by selecting Tools Options Preferences from the main SAS window. Then on the Results tab, select the Use ODS Graphics check box to enable ODS Graphics by default, or clear the check box to disable ODS Graphics by default. You can also change the default output destination (HTML or LISTING) on the Results tab. For more information about default ODS Graphics settings and default destinations, see the section HTML Output in the SAS Windowing Environment in Chapter 20: Using the Output Delivery System.

When ODS Graphics is enabled, procedures that support ODS Graphics create graphs, either by default or when you specify procedure options for requesting specific graphs. Often, you can leave ODS Graphics enabled for the duration of your SAS session. However, you might consider disabling ODS Graphics if your goal is solely to produce computational results, particularly for large data sets or with many BY groups.