Scatter Plot Task :: SAS(R) Studio 3.4: User's Guide

About the Scatter Plot Task

The Scatter Plot task creates plots that show the relationships between two or three variables by revealing patterns or concentrations of data points. For example, a two-dimensional scatter plot can display the heights and weights of all students in a class.

Example: Scatter Plot of Height versus Weight

In this example, you want to create a scatter plot of height versus weight.

To create this example:

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

Assign columns to these roles:

Role	Column Name
X variable	Height
Y variable	Weight

To run the task, click .

Assigning Data to Roles

You can subset the data in the input data set by applying an SQL WHERE clause. In the Where string box, enter your valid SQL syntax. Operands that are character strings must be enclosed in single or double quotation marks. To view this WHERE clause with the resulting graph, select the Include as footnote check box.

To run the Scatter Plot task, you must assign columns to the X variable and Y variable roles.

Option Name	Description
Roles
X variable	specifies the variable for the x axis.
Y variable	specifies the variable for the y axis.
Group variable	specifies a variable that is used to group the data. The plot elements for each group value are automatically distinguished by different visual attributes.
Marker label variable	displays a label for each data point. If you specify a variable, the values of that variable are used for the data labels. If you do not specify a variable, then the values of the Y variable are used for the data labels.
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.
Fit Plots Note: This is available only if you assign numeric variables.
Regression	creates a plot with the fitted regression line. You can specify whether to include the confidence limits for means and the prediction limits for the individual predicted values. The Alpha option specifies the confidence level for the confidence limits. The Degree option specifies the degree of the polynomial fit.
Loess	creates a fitted Loess curve. You can specify whether to include the confidence limits. The Alpha option specifies the confidence level for the confidence limits. Note: This option is available only if your input data set contains less than 2,000 observations.
PBSpline	creates a fitted penalized B-spline curve. You can specify whether to include the confidence limits for means and the prediction limits for the individual predicted values. The Alpha option specifies the confidence level for the confidence limits.

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.
Marker Details
You can specify the symbol type, color, and size of the markers. You can also specify the degree of transparency for the plot. The range is 0 (completely opaque) to 1 (completely transparent).
Marker Labels
Font size	specifies the appearance of the labels in the plot when you assign a variable to the Marker label variable role.
X Axis, Y Axis
Show grid lines	creates grid lines at each tick on the axis.
Show label	displays the label for the axis. By default, the label is the variable name. To customize, enter this label in the Custom label box.
Legend Details
Legend location	specifies whether the legend is placed outside or inside the axis area.
Graph Size
You can specify the width and height of the graph in inches, centimeters, or pixels.