Contributed by Warren Kuhfeld, Analytical Solutions Manager, Research & Development
SAS/GRAPH software was first released when I was a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the early 1980s. I remember submitting a SAS program to make a graph and then walking to the computing center in another building to the one pen plotter on campus to pick up my graph. It was worth it though, because the graph looked so great!
My how things have changed since then! Our standards for what constitutes a great looking graph have changed, and we expect to see them on our computer and print them in our office or down the hall. I long ago moved from UNC to SAS where I manage the multivariate models group and contribute to the development of SAS/STAT software. One thing has stayed the same though. I am still using SAS/GRAPH software to make my graphs. However, now I am using ODS Statistical Graphics.
ODS Graphics is a revolution on SAS/GRAPH software. Many graphs are similar to those that we previously made with legacy SAS/GRAPH, but things are now easier and the software is more powerful. Most importantly, the graphs are gorgeous!
In my role as a SAS/STAT developer, I was one of the pioneers in using ODS Graphics. SAS/STAT developers write templates using the Graph Template Language (GTL) that define the layout of the graphs that our procedures automatically produce. We also write documentation for our procedures. In the documentation, we produce graphs automatically with our procedures and we also use the statistical graphics (SG) procedures to make additional graphs. These two methods provide complementary and competing methods of making graphs. The SG procedures are easy to use, and they can make many standard graphs. They also provide many ways to customize your graphs. The GTL is powerful and has a rich syntax. You can use the GTL to make graphs that the SG procedures cannot make. However, if it is possible to use both methods to make a graph, you will usually find that it is easier to use the SG procedures. The same ODS Graphics methodology underlies both methods. In fact, the SG procedures write templates for you using the GTL and then produced the graph from those templates. I found in my work as a SAS/STAT developer that I frequently had a need for both methods.
A significant part of my job at SAS involves performing pioneering work on a method then writing step-by-step instructions so others can do the same thing more easily. It seemed natural that I would do this for ODS graphics. My first work in this area is the chapter in the SAS/STAT documentation “Statistical Graphics Using ODS.”
Continuing in this area, I wrote the new SAS Press book Statistical Graphics in SAS: An Introduction to the Graph Template Language and the Statistical Graphics Procedures. My goal is to make it easier for you to get started on the GTL and the SG procedures by providing you with a series of examples that show how to use each method to make a series of graphs. The GTL and the SG procedures are presented in parallel. Ways in which these methods correspond and differ are shown. In many examples, the same graph is made two different ways by using each of the two methods. In other examples, the GTL alone is used to make a graph that the SG procedures cannot currently make. These examples provide good starting points to help you get started using the GTL and the SG procedures. While these new methods are in many ways different from the old legacy SAS/GRAPH software, you will find that the GTL and the SG procedures are easy to learn with the aid of my book and the documentation.
