Bar Chart Task

About the Bar Chart Task

The Bar Chart task creates horizontal or vertical bar charts that compare numeric values or statistics between different values of a chart variable. Bar charts show the relative magnitude of data by displaying bars of varying height. Each bar represents a category of data.

Example: Bar Chart of Mean Sales for Each Product Line

For example, you can create a bar chart that compares the total amount of sales for each product line in the Sashelp.Pricedata data set. By default, the task calculates the mean of the response variable for each product line. This bar chart shows that Line 2 has the highest mean product sales.

To create this example:

In the Tasks section, expand the Graph folder and double-click Bar Chart. The user interface for the Bar Chart task opens.
On the Data tab, select the SASHELP.PRICEDATA data set.

Assign columns to these roles:

Role	Column Name
Category variable	productLine
Response variable	sale

To run the task, click .

Here are the results:

Bar Chart That Displays Sales for Each Product Line

Assigning Data to Roles

To run the Bar Chart task, you must assign a column to the Category variable role.

Role	Description
Category variable	specifies the variable that classifies the observations into distinct subsets.
Response variable	specifies a numeric response variable for the plot.
Group variable	specifies a variable that is used to group the data.
URL variable	specifies a character variable that contains URLs for web pages to be displayed when parts of the plot are selected within an HTML page.
BY variable	creates a separate graph for each BY group.

Setting Options

Option Name	Description
Direction
You can create either a vertical or horizontal bar chart.
Title and Footnote
You can specify a custom title and footnote for the output.
Group Layout
Cluster	displays group values as separate adjacent bars that replace the single category bar. Each set of group values is centered at the midpoint tick mark for the category.
Stack	overlays group values without any clustering. Each group is represented by unique visual attributes derived from the GraphData1... GraphDatan style elements in the current style.
Statistics
Mean	calculates the mean of the response variable.
Sum	calculates the sum of the response variable.
Limits
Limits	specifies which limit lines to display. Limits are displayed as heavier line segments with a serif at the end that extends from each bar. Limit lines are displayed only if you select the Mean statistic.
Limit statistic	specifies the statistic for the limit lines.
Limit multiplier	specifies the number of standard units for the limit lines. By default, this value is 1.
Bar Details
Apply bar color	specifies the color for the bars when a column is not assigned to the Group variable role.
Transparency	specifies the degree of transparency for the plot. The range is 0 (completely opaque) to 1 (completely transparent).
Data skin	specifies a special effect to be used on all filled bars.
Bar Labels
Show bar labels or statistics	displays the values of the calculated response as data labels.
Category Axis
Reverse	specifies that the values for the tick marks are displayed in reverse (descending) order.
Show values in data order	places the discrete values for the tick marks in the order in which they appear in the data.
Show label	enables you to display a label for the axis. Enter this label in the Custom label box.
Response Axis
Show grid	creates grid lines at each tick on the axis.
Append statistics to axis label	includes the name of the calculated statistic in the axis label. For example, if you are calculating the mean, the axis label could be Weight (Mean).
Custom Label	enables you to customize the label for the response axis. By default, the axis label is the name of the variable.
Legend Details
Show legend	specifies whether to display a legend in the output.
Legend location	specifies whether the legend is placed outside or inside of the axis area.
Graph Size
You can specify the width and height of the graph in inches.