Histogram Task

About the Histogram Task

The Histograms task creates a chart that displays the frequency distribution of a numeric variable.

Example: Histogram of Stock Volume

To create this example:

In the Tasks section, expand the Graph folder and double-click Histogram. The user interface for the Histogram task opens.
In the Data tab, select the SASHELP.STOCKS data set.
To the Analysis variable role, assign the Volume column.
To run the task, click .

Here are the results:

Assigning Data to Roles

To run the Histogram task, you must assign a column to the Analysis variable role.

You can specify whether to create a density curve that shows the distribution of values for a numeric variable. You can create density curves for normal and kernel distributions.

Setting Options

Option Name	Description
Title and Footnote
You can specify a custom title and footnote for the output. You can also specify the font size for this text.
Bin Details
For the bins in the histogram, you can specify the color and the transparency. If you are running the second maintenance release for SAS 9.4 or later, you can also specify whether to apply a gradient to each bin.
Horizontal Axis
Interval axis	creates tick marks at regular intervals on the horizontal axis based on the minimum and maximum values of the analysis variable.
Bin axis	creates tick marks at the midpoints of the value bins on the horizontal axis.
Specify number of bins	enables you to specify the number of bins in the histogram. Valid values range from 2 to 20. The bins always span the range of data. The task tries to produce tick values that are easily interpreted (for example, 5, 10, 15, 20). Sometimes the location of the first bin and the bin width might be adjusted. By default, the task automatically determines the number of bins.
Show label	displays the label for the analysis variable along the horizontal axis. You can also enter a custom label.
Vertical Axis
Specify axis scaling	specifies the scaling that is applied to the vertical axis. You can choose from these options: COUNT the axis displays the frequency count PERCENT the axis displays values as a percentage of the total. PROPORTION the axis displays values as proportions (0.0 to 1.0) of the total.
Show grid	specifies whether to show the grid lines for the vertical axis.
Show label	specifies whether to show the label for the type of axis scaling.
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, centimeters, or pixels.