About the SAS ODS Graphics Procedures

The ODS Graphics procedures, sometimes called ODS Statistical Graphics procedures, use ODS Graphics functionality to produce plots for exploratory data analysis and for customized statistical displays. The procedures provide a simple, high-level syntax that enables you to produce sophisticated graphs by using a wide array of plot types and layouts. You can create scatter plots, histograms, bar charts, box plots, classification panels, scatter plot matrices, and many other types of statistical and business graphs. Your graphs can have titles, footnotes, legends, and other graphics elements.
The procedures support statistical analysis and can create simple or complex graphical views of your data. Though the procedures were initially designed to facilitate the production of standard statistical graphs, they are also well suited for the production of non-statistical or business graphs.
The ODS Graphics procedures create graphs that are based on the Graph Template Language (GTL). However, you do not need to know the details of templates and the GTL in order to use the ODS Graphics procedures. With very little coding effort, you can use the procedures to create the most commonly used graphs that are supported by the GTL.
There are five ODS Graphics procedures, each with a specific purpose:
SGPLOT
creates single-cell plots with a variety of plot and chart types and overlays.
SGPANEL
creates classification panels for one or more classification variables. Each graph cell in the panel can contain either a simple plot or multiple, overlaid plots.
Note: The SGPLOT and SGPANEL procedures largely support the same types of plots and charts. For this reason, the two procedures have an almost identical syntax. The main distinction between the two procedures is that the SGPANEL procedure produces a matrix of graphs, one for each level of a classification variable.
SGSCATTER
creates scatter plots and scatter plot matrices with optional fits and ellipses.
SGRENDER
produces graphs from graph templates that are written in the GTL. You can also render a graph from a SAS ODS Graphics Editor (SGE) file.
SGDESIGN
creates graphical output based on a graph file that has been created by using the ODS Graphics Designer application.
An ODS destination must be open to create output from these procedures. By default, the ODS HTML destination is open. You can use the ODS destination options and the ODS GRAPHICS statement options to control many aspects of your graph output. For more information, see Managing Your Graphics with ODS.
The procedures have two facilities that enable you to modify graph output:
  • The SG annotation feature enables you to add shapes, images, and other annotations to graph output.
  • SG attribute maps enable you to control the visual attributes that are applied to specific data values in your graphs. For example, if you create a graph that plots items sold in different countries, you can specify the display attributes for the sales data of each country by name. Attribute maps enable you to ensure that particular visual attributes are applied based on the value of the data rather than the position of the data in the data set.
The ODS Graphics procedures enable you to create complex statistical graphics that use the principles of effective graphics(footnote1) to accurately communicate the results of your analysis to your consumers. The minimal coding required enables you to focus on your statistical analysis instead of the visual appearance of your graphs.
FOOTNOTE 1:For more information about the principles of effective graphics, see Cleveland (1993) and Robbins (2005).[return]