A SAS programmer wanted to visualize density estimate for some univariate data. The data had several groups, so he wanted to create a panel of density estimate, which you can easily do by using PROC SGPANEL in SAS. However, the programmer's boss wanted to see filled density estimates, such as
Years ago, I wrote an article that showed how to visualize patterns of missing data. During a recent data visualization talk, I discussed the program, which used a small number of SAS IML statements. An audience member asked whether it is possible to construct the same visualization by using only
A dot plot is a standard statistical graphic that displays a statistic (often a mean) and the uncertainty of the statistic for one or more groups. Statisticians and data scientists use it in the analysis of group data. In late 2023, I started noticing headlines about "dot plots" in the
Recently, I saw a scatter plot that displayed the ticks, values, and labels for a vertical axis on the right side of a graph. In the SGPLOT procedure in SAS, you can use the Y2AXIS option to move an axis on the right side of a graph. Similarly, you can
Happy Pi Day! Every year on March 14th (written 3/14 in the US), people in the mathematical sciences celebrate all things pi-related because 3.14 is the three-decimal approximation to π ≈ 3.14159265358979.... Pi is a mathematical constant defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference (C) to its diameter (D).
I sometimes see analysts overuse colors in statistical graphics. My rule of thumb is that you do not need to use color to represent a variable that is already represented in a graph. For example, it is redundant to use a continuous color ramp to represent the lengths of bars
In a previous article, I presented some of the most popular blog posts from 2023. The popular articles tend to discuss elementary topics that have broad appeal. However, I also wrote many technical articles about advanced topics. The following articles didn't make the Top 10 list, but they deserve a
In 2023, I wrote 90 articles for The DO Loop blog. My most popular articles were about SAS programming, data visualization, and statistics. In addition, several "general interest" articles were popular, including my article for Pi Day and an article about AI chatbots. If you missed any of these articles,
These are a few of my favorite things. —Maria in The Sound of Music For my annual Christmas-themed post, I decided to forgo fractal Christmas trees and animated greeting cards and instead present a compilation of some of my favorite data visualization tips for advanced SAS users. Hopefully, this
Plot rates, not counts. This maxim is often stated by data visualization experts, but often ignored by practitioners. You might also hear the related phrases "plot proportions" or "plot percentages," which mean the same thing but expresses the idea alliteratively. An example in a previous article about avoiding alphabetical ordering
