Value Types for Statement Options

The default value of an option depends on the template definition that is in use, and the implementation of that option depends on the ODS destination that formats the output. In addition, if you are creating HTML output, the implementation of an attribute depends on the browser that you use.

This section describes the value types that are available for GTL statement options.

arrow

specifies a string value of an arrow shape, a dynamic variable that contains an arrow shape, or a style reference to an arrow shape.

boolean

specifies a string value that is true or false, or a style reference to a Boolean value.

For all attributes that support a value of ON, the following forms are equivalent:

ATTRIBUTE-NAME
ATTRIBUTE-NAME=ON

For all attributes that support a value of column, column can be any variable that you declare in the GTL template with the DYNAMIC, MVAR, or NMVAR statement. If the attribute is a Boolean value, then the value of variable should resolve to either true or false. The following values represent a true or false value.

Values for True	Values for False
True	False
ON	OFF
_ON_	_OFF_
TRUE	FALSE
YES	NO
_YES_	_NO_
1	0

color

specifies a string that identifies a color. A color can be one of the following:

any of the color names that are supported by SAS. These names include
- a predefined SAS color (for example, blue or VIYG)
- a red/green/blue (RGB) value (for example, CX0023FF or #0023FF)
- a hue/light/saturation (HLS) value (for example, H14E162D)
- a gray-scale value (for example, GRAYBB).
one of the colors that exists in the SAS session when the style definition is used, such as DMSBLACK or DMSCYAN. (Use these color specifications only if you are running SAS in the windowing environment.)
an English description of an Hue/Light/Saturation (HLS) value. Such descriptions use a combination of words to describe the lightness, the saturation, and the hue (in that order). You can use the Color Naming System to form a color by doing one of the following:
- combining a chromatic hue with a lightness, a saturation, or both
- combining the achromatic hue gray with a lightness
- combining the achromatic hue black or white without qualifiers.
- combining words to form a wide variety of colors, such as light vivid green, dark vivid orange, or light yellow.
specify hues that are intermediate between two neighboring colors. To do so, combine one of the following adjectives with one of its neighboring colors: brownish, greenish, purplish, or yellowish (for example, bluish purple or reddish orange).

column

specifies a column variable that contains either double-precision values or string values, or a dynamic variable that refers to such a column variable.

See also: integer-column, numeric-column, and string-column.

dimension

specifies a nonnegative number. The number can be followed by one of the following optional units of measure:

Unit	Description
%	percentage
PX	pixels
PT	point size, calculated at 100 dots per inch

The default value for the Printer destination is units of 1/150 of an inch.

expression

specifies a selective, relational, or logical program structure that calculates values when those values are not stored in the data. The expression must be specified as an EVAL() argument. The following shows the structure of an EVAL() argument:

x = EVAL(expression)

The expression returns a number and can be formed with consonants, data columns, dynamic variables, functions, or other expressions. The following example uses the data column Time and the SGE functions MEAN and ACF:

EVAL(MEAN(Time) + ACF(Time, NLags=10))

For more information about expressions, see Expressions.

format

specifies a SAS format or a user-defined format.

integer, integer-column

specifies a member of the set of positive whole numbers, negative whole numbers, and zero.

An integer-column specifies a column variable that contains integer values, or a dynamic variable that refers to such a column variable.

line-pattern-name, line-pattern-number

specifies a string value of a line pattern, a numeric value of a line pattern, a dynamic variable that contains such a string or number, or a style reference to a line pattern. Line patterns are chosen for discriminability. Because of different densities, equal weighting is impossible for lines of the same thickness. Instead, line patterns are ordered to provide a continuum of weights, which is useful when displaying confidence bands.

For details about line attributes, see Line Options.

marker-name

specifies a string value of a maker symbol, a dynamic variable that contains a marker symbol, or a style reference to a marker symbol.

For details about marker attributes, see Marker Options.

number, numeric-column

specifies a value, a dynamic variable that contains a double-precision value, an expression that resolves to a double-precision value, or a style reference to a double-precision value.

A numeric-column specifies a column variable that contains double-precision values, or a dynamic variable that refers to such a column variable.

string, string-column

specifies a quoted character string.

A string-column specifies a column variable that contains string values, or a dynamic variable that refers to such a column variable.

style-reference

specifies a reference to an attribute that is defined in a style element.

In the ODS Graphics templates that SAS provides, options for plot features are specified with a style reference in the form style-element:attribute, rather than a specific value. For example, the symbol, color, and size of markers for a basic scatter plot is specified in a SCATTERPLOT statement as follows:

scatterplot x=X y=Y /
  markersymbol=GraphDataDefault:markersymbol
  markercolor=GraphDataDefault:contrastcolor
  markersize=GraphDataDefault:markersize

The above style references guarantee a common appearance for markers used in all basic scatter plots. For non-grouped data, the marker appearance is controlled by the GraphDataDefault style element in the style definition that you specify.

In order to create your own style definition, or to modify a style definition to use with ODS Graphics, you need to understand the relationship between style elements and graph features. For more information, see the usage guide.