In reply to LeRoy Bessler.

Thanks for taking the time to write this nice summary. Your issues are well stated and address best practices in data visualization. The purpose of my blog is to share ideas and programming tips, so thanks for sharing yours!

Several of your concerns can be addressed by using features of PROC SGPLOT:

Regarding displaying precise values, you can create graphs that display tool tips that appear when you hover the pointer over a marker. All you need to do is enable the option by using ODS GRAPHICS / IMAGEMAP;. Then you can use the TIP=(variable-list) option to specify the variables whose values you want to display in the tips.

Yes, the default sizes of the graphs in the blog are small. I do that because some people subscribe to my blog by email. On the web version, you can click on the graph and see it at the resolution that it was created. I usually create graphs to have 480 horizontal pixels, which fits well in a browser. Many SAS users know that they can use a statement such as ODS GRAPHICS / WIDTH=1280 HEIGHT=720; to generate the graph at a different resolution.

Yes, the default size of the legend items might be too small for some people. That's why PROC SGPLOT enables you to control the size of the "swatch" that is displayed in legends. In fact, there are many ways to configure the size and appearance of legends in the graph. I usually accept the default properties so that the code in the post does not become too complicated.

Best wishes and happy visualizations!