What's New in SAS/GRAPH 9.0 and 9.1

Overview

It's easier than ever to produce enhanced and detailed, informative graphics for your Web presentations. New features in SAS/GRAPH include:

three new procedures: GAREABAR, GBARLINE, and MAPIMPORT
new options in the GCHART procedure for producing standard pie or donut charts with a detailed, inner pie overlay
new options in the GRADAR procedure for adjusting how a chart looks and for specifying annotation
support for the new DOCUMENT procedure for the Output Delivery System (ODS)
the new SAS Maps Online application
server-side rendering using the ACTXIMG and JAVAIMG devices
client support for annotation
client support for ODS styles
ActiveX support for creating graphs interactively
ActiveX support for radar charts produced with the GRADAR procedure
the new Java Constellation Applet
user interface enhancements for the client graphs, such as redesigned dialogs.

Note:

This section describes the features of SAS/GRAPH that are new or enhanced since SAS 8.2.
z/OS is the successor to the OS/390 operating system. SAS/GRAPH 9.1 is supported on both OS/390 and z/OS operating systems and, throughout this document, any reference to z/OS also applies to OS/390, unless otherwise stated.

Details

Procedures

The following procedures are new or enhanced:

The GAREABAR procedure generates bar graphs in which the width of the bars are proportional to a characteristic of the data element that is represented by the bars. Area bar charts are supported only when you specify device=activex or device=actximg .
The new GBARLINE procedure enables you to create vertical bar charts that have line plot overlays.

Note: The GBARLINE procedure is not supported for Java.
The new MAPIMPORT procedure enables you to import ESRI Shapefiles into SAS/GRAPH map data sets.
The new DOCUMENT procedure for ODS enables you to re-arrange or to duplicate reports--including graphs--without having to rerun your analysis. You can display output to any ODS output format without executing your SAS programs again. For more information, see the DOCUMENT procedure in SAS Output Delivery System: User's Guide.
New options in the PIE statement in the GCHART procedure enable you to create detail pie charts that have an inner pie overlay. The slices in the overlay align with the slices in the outer pie and show detailed information about the major components that comprise the outer slice. The new options are DETAIL=, DETAIL_PERCENT=, DETAIL_RADIUS=, DETAIL_SLICE=, DETAIL_THRESHOLD=, and DETAIL_VALUE=.
The GRADAR procedure has the following new options:
- ANNOTATE= specifies an annotate data set.
- INBORDER requests a border around plots.
- INHEIGHT= specifies the height in percent screen units of text used inside the frame of the chart.
- LAST= specifies that the spoke that corresponds to the category is displayed to the left of the start angle.
- MAXNVERT= specifies the maximum number of vertices.
- MISSING accepts a missing value as a valid midpoint for the chart variable.
- NOFRAME suppresses the frame that is drawn around the chart by default.
- NOZEROREF turns off the zero reference line when negative values are plotted.
- OTHER= specifies a new category that merges all categories that are not selected because of the MAXNVERT= option.
- ORDERACROSS= specifies the display order for the values of the ACROSS= variable.
- SPIDER draws lines on a radar chart that connect the spokes instead of the default tick marks. The resulting lines look similar to a "spider web."
- STARINRADIUS= and STAROUTRADIUS= determine the diameter of the stars.
The LEVELS=ALL option in the GMAP procedure uses a color ramp to assign a continuous color scheme to each response value.

SYMBOL Statement

The SINGULAR= option tunes the algorithm that is used to check for singularities.

Graphics Options

The following graphics options are new:

USERINPUT: determines whether user input is enabled for the device.
SWFONTRENDER: specifies the method used to render software fonts.

The Annotate Facility

The following macros are new:

%CENTROID: retrieves the centroids of polygons.
%MAPLABEL: creates an output data set that can be used with the ANNO= option in PROC GMAP.

SAS Maps Online Application

The new SAS Maps Online application enables you to download: data updates, sample SAS/GRAPH programs that use the map data sets delivered with SAS/GRAPH, and GIF images of maps. SAS Maps Online is located at support.sas.com/rnd/datavisualization/mapsonline/html

Pop-up Data Tips for Web Graphics

Web graphics now support pop-up data tips. A pop-up data tip is text that is displayed when a user moves the cursor over a portion of a Web graphic. You can add custom data tips to the output of any SAS/GRAPH procedure that supports the HTML= option.

Server-Side Rendering

The ACTXIMG and JAVAIMG devices generate images on the server that match the look of the client graphs. These devices are especially useful when you do not need the interactivity that is provided by the client graphs. ACTXIMG is only available for Windows.

Client Support for Annotation

The Java and ActiveX clients now support annotation through the Output Delivery System (ODS) for the G3D, GBARLINE, GCHART, GCONTOUR, GMAP, GPLOT, and GRADAR procedures. You can specify the ANNOTATE= option in these procedures when you are using the JAVA, JAVAIMG, ACTIVEX, and ACTXIMG device drivers. All annotate functions are available with each device driver (except the FRAME and IMAGE functions, which are available only with ACTIVEX and ACTXIMG).

Client Support for ODS Styles

ODS styles now affect both table and client graph output. Sixteen new graph styles provide a consistent look for your entire ODS output, which enhances readability and usability.

ActiveX Control

The following are enhancements for the ActiveX Control:

The ActiveX control now supports creating graphs interactively. You can import data from SAS data sets, Microsoft Excel files, or Microsoft Access files.
Note: To create graphs interactively, you must have Enterprise Guide 2.0 HotFix 11 or higher installed.
The ActiveX control now supports radar charts that are produced by using the GRADAR procedure.
The ActiveX control menus now enable the following additional languages: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian. (The following languages were also available in SAS 8.2: French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, and Spanish.

Java Constellation Applet and DS2CONST Macro

The new Java Constellation Applet, which you can generate by using the DS2CONST macro, enables you to see the relationships among node link data, such as Web click data, network flow data, and simple affinity data. You can interactively select a set of nodes to see the relationships among the nodes. You can see all of the links coming to the set of nodes or going out of a set of nodes.

Java Treeview Applet and DS2TREE Macro

The new Java Treeview applet, which you can generate by using the DS2TREE macro, shows the parent-child relationships of elements in a hierarchical structure. It provides an optional "fish-eye" distortion that highlights the central area of interest, and enables you to search for, hide, and display element subtrees. A Treeview diagram is ideal for displaying data such as organizational charts or the hierarchical relationships of the pages of a Web site.

Java Contour Applet

The following are enhancements for the Java Contour Applet:

a new plot style, Smooth, enables you to display flat (linearly interpolated) planes with no outlines.
several new parameters.

Java Graph Applet

The following are enhancements in the Java Graph Applet:

For bar charts, error bars and the CERROR= option (which sets their color) are now enabled. Bars can be labeled by statistics by using the OUTSIDE= and INSIDE= options. Patterns are enabled for 2-D bars, and improved support for the VALUE= option in the AXIS statement is provided.
For pie charts with group variables, the OTHER=, HTML=, INVISIBLE, and EXPLODE options are available. Data tips can now be displayed for groups. The V=EMPTY option in a PATTERN statement creates hollow pie slices. The LABEL= option enables you to specify font height and color for donut charts.
Scatter plots now enable the BOX, STD, and HILOC interpolations. For these interpolations, you can use the SYMBOL statement to specify colors, font height and width, line type, point labels, and box width.
The Graph applet menus now enable the following additional languages: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian. (The following languages were also available in SAS 8.2: French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, and Spanish.)
The MENUREMOVE parameter can be used to disable menus and menu options in the applet's user interface.

User-Defined Formats

The Java and ActiveX devices now support user-defined formats, except for nested user-defined formats. For information about defining formats, see the documentation for the FORMAT procedure in the Base SAS Procedures Guide.

Colors

Color names can now be a maximum of 64 characters in length.

Fonts

The following fonts have been added:

Davidb (Hebraic)
Fsong (Chinese)
Hebrewb
Hei (Chinese)
Mincho (Japanese)

PAGEFIT Attribute for PostScript

The new PAGEFIT image attribute enables you to adjust how a PostScript image fits on the page. The PAGEFIT attribute replaces the NOFIT attribute.

GTITLE and GFOOTNOTE Options for the ODS Statement

The behavior of the GTITLE and GFOOTNOTE options has been changed--when you specify NOGTITLE or NOGFOOTNOTE, the space in the graphic that would have been used for the title or footnote is allocated to the procedure output rather than being left empty. You need to be aware of this change if you are using annotation or mapping coordinates. For more information, see Controlling Where Titles and Footnotes are Rendered.

Enhancements in SAS/GRAPH Documentation

In addition to information about new features, the SAS/GRAPH documentation now includes information about the following:

COLORMAC and HLPCLR macros and expanded information about choosing color schemes
DSGI routine GASK ('PATREP') and the functions GSET('PATREP') and GRAPH('PLAY')
map formats that are available with the GMAP procedure
HTML generators, which are macros that generate HTML files that run one of the SAS/GRAPH applets: DS2CONST (Constellation Applet), DS2TREE (Treeview Applet), and DS2CSF (Rangeview Applet).
attributes and parameters for Java and ActiveX, which were formerly documented in the SAS Output Delivery System: User's Guide.

Also, additional examples of Web-output programs have been added to the documentation and the SAS/GRAPH sample library. Documentation for the JAVA2 device driver has been removed, because JAVA and JAVA2 are now functionally equivalent.

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