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SAS Graphs as Static Images
SAS/GRAPH software can generate graphs as GIF, PNG, or JPEG images that are automatically embedded in an HTML page. These graphs download quickly to a user's browser and can be generated for any SAS/GRAPH output.
Although the static images are not interactive, they can be given drill-down capabilities. For drill-down graphs, SAS/GRAPH automatically links pixel areas in the image (for example, the bars in a bar chart) to URL target locations that are defined in the HTML file. When the user clicks a defined pixel area, the associated HTML page is loaded into the browser. This links graphs to other web pages that contain related information.
Finally, the SAS graph styles that are available with the interactive graphs for ActiveX or Java are also available in either technology to save static images in several formats.
Graph Types:
- Bar Charts (Vertical and Horizontal)
- Pie Charts
- Line, Area, Scatter, and Bubble Plots
- Contour and Surface Plots
- Block, Choropleth, Prism, and Surface Maps
Additional Features:
Bar Charts (Vertical and Horizontal)
Bar charts represent a requested statistic based on the values of one or more variables. They are useful for displaying exact magnitudes and emphasizing the differences among the charted values.
 Vertical Bar Chart  Horizontal Bar Chart |
When generating a bar chart as an image, you have extensive control over the chart's appearance. These Bar charts allow users to do the following:
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Pie Charts
Pie charts use the size of pie slices to graphically represent the value of a statistic for a data range. Pie charts are useful for examining how the values of a variable contribute to the whole and for comparing the values of several variables
A pie chart with detailed slices produces an inner pie overlay whose slices show the major components that form the outer pie's slices.
 Pie Chart
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When generating a pie chart as an image, you have extensive control over the chart's appearance. These Pie charts allow users to do the following:
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Line, Area, Scatter, and Bubble Plots
Simple line plots show the relationship of one variable to another, often as movements or trends in the data over a period of time. Typically, each variable value on the horizontal axis has only one corresponding value on the vertical axis.
Area plots are line plots that emphasize trends by filling the areas between plot lines with a pattern or color.
Two-dimensional scatter plots show the relationship of one variable to another, often revealing concentrations or trends in the data. Typically, each variable value on the horizontal axis can have any number of corresponding values on the vertical axis.
Bubble plots show the relative magnitude of one variable in relation to two other variables. The values of two variables determine the position of the bubble on the plot, and the value of a third variable determines the size of the bubbles.
 Bubble Plot  Area Plot |
When generating a plot as an image, you have extensive control over the plot's appearance. These Line, Area, Scatter, and Bubble Plots allow users to do the following:
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Contour and Surface Plots
Contour plots are two-dimensional plots that show three-dimensional relationships. They use contour lines or patterns to represent levels of magnitude for a contour variable that is plotted on the horizontal and vertical axes.
Surface plots are three-dimensional plots that display the relationship of three variables as a continuous surface. Surface plots examine the three-dimensional shape of data.
 Contour Plot  Surface Plot |
When generating a contour or surface plot as an image, you have extensive control over the plot's appearance. These Contour and Surface Plots allow users to do the following:
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Block, Choropleth, Prism, and Surface Maps
Block maps are three-dimensional maps that represent data values as blocks of varying height rising from the middle of the map areas.
Choropleth maps are two-dimensional maps that represent data values by filling map areas with combinations of patterns and color.
Prism maps are three-dimensional maps in which levels of magnitude of the specified response variables are represented by raised polygons of varying height, pattern, and color.
Surface maps are three-dimensional maps in which levels of magnitude of the specified response variables are represented by spikes of varying height.
 Choropleth Map |
When generating a map as an image, you have extensive control over the map's appearance. These maps allow users to do the following:
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Other Graphs
SAS/GRAPH software can generate many more graph types than those listed above, and it can save any graph as an image. In addition, it allows you to combine multiple graphs, and to add annotations to the graphs. Thus, there are countless ways that you can use SAS/GRAPH software to generate images for Web delivery.
To give you a feel for the variety of possible graphs, the following sections list a few more graph types that you can generate, and show some samples of the ways you can combine procedure output or use annotations to enhance your graphs.
| Other Graph Types | |
 Block Charts |
Block charts use the height of blocks to represent the value of a chart statistic for each category of data. |
 Star Charts |
Star charts use the length of chart spines to represent the value of a chart statistic for each category of data or midpoint. |
 Radar Charts |
Radar charts show the relative frequency of data measures in quality control or market research problems. The chart statistics are displayed along spokes that radiate from the center of the chart. |
 High-low Plots |
High-low plots show how several values of one variable relate to one value of another variable. They are useful for representing data that fluctuates around the observation criteria (for example, stock market values that fluctuate during each trading day). |
 Box Plots |
Box plots show how several values of one variable relate to one value of another variable. They are useful for representing data that can be measured using quantile ranges or standard deviations (for example, research data). |
| Combined Graphs | |
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This graph combines a choropleth map with a bar chart. |
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This graph combines a prism map with a bar chart. |
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This graph combines a filled contour plot with a line contour plot. |
| Annotated Graphs | |
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This graph combines a pie chart with a bar chart. It uses annotations to label elements in the plot and also to draw a line that connects the exploded pie slice to the end of the bar chart axis. |
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This graph combines a map with a bar chart. It uses annotations to label towns and roads, and to add notes. It uses text slides to provide the graph titles and footnotes. |
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This graph enhances the effect of a bar chart by adding annotations that depict a background of mountains and trees. It also uses the mapping procedure to create the illusion of a fire. |
Graph Styles
The SAS style definitions that are available with the interactive graphs for ActiveX or Java are also available in either technolgy to
- generate a PNG image of an interactive graph and automatically reference the image in an HTML page
- generate a PDF or RTF file that renders an image of an interactive graph
- send graphical output directly to a printer.
Styles definitions determine the visual characteristics of a graph, such as its use of colors, fonts, background, transparency, drop shadows, and more. The styles have names, and the style definitions are applied to a graph by assigning a style name to it.
The same style definition can be applied to both grapical and non-graphical output from a SAS program, thus coordinating the visual characteristics of output tables and graphs.
The following figure shows the same graph with different styles assigned to it. The style names are above the graphs. (The figure shows just a sampling of the available styles.)
Statistical |
Science |
Gears |
Curve |
Education |
Magnify |
In the following figure, the left and right halves of the figure show the same table and graph from SAS output. The output on the left has the Gears style applied to it, and the output on the right has the Magnify style applied to it.
| Style=Gears | Style=Magnify |
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