vdist prefab


Version 2.33 Jun'06

Prefabs


Manual page for vdist_prefab(PL)
 
View the vdist prefab examples


vdist is a prefab for displaying distributions of one or two variables. Distributions may be depicted using histograms, bee-swarm diagrams, and/or rangebars. Data do not need to be in any particular order.


Parameters

Prefab
parameter
name
Data type DefaultDescription Examples
(ignore line wrapping)
Standard parameters     Most of the standard prefab parameters may be used. You must specify data (the name of an input data file) (data2 is also available for producing a second distribution, see below). The X axis formatting parameters, legend parameters, and clickmap parameters aren't available with this prefab. rectangle controls the left plotting area.. the right plotting area is automatically derived from the left one. ygrid is on by default.. use ygrid=no to turn off the grid. title will be shown centered over the first distribution.. use title2 to label the second distribution. ptselect and ptselect2 may be used to select different data rows for left and right side.
y data field must be specified Data field containing data for the first distribution. y=2

y=pmb
y2 data field   Data field containing data for the second (right panel) distribution. y2=4

y2=rmb
data2 filename
or
-
  Name of an optional second data file to get y2 from. May be given as - to read data from standard input. If not specified, it is assumed that both y1 and y2 are coming from the same data file (data). data=file1 data2=file2 y=3 y2=3
title2 text   A title to be displayed centered over the second distribution. "title2= Control Group"


Pertaining to the distribution histogram

Prefab
parameter
name
Data type DefaultDescription Examples
(ignore line wrapping)
dist centered
histo
no
centered Appearance of the distribution. centered gives a beeswarm-like display; histo gives a histogram. May be specified as no to completely omit the distribution portion and show rangebars (boxplots) only. dist=histo
bindiv numeric 5.0 Control the bin size, based on Y axis stub increment. If specified, the bin size will be the stub increment divided by this value. This can be a convenient way to control the bin size since the stub increment is often automatically set, based on the data. bindiv=2
binsize numeric   Specify the bin size explicitly, for cases where the automatically determined bin size isn't ideal. binsize=50
distcolor color blue The color of the distribution histogram bars. distcolor=black
distdotspread numeric 2.0 Distributions are made up of a series of dots; this parameter controls how far apart (horizontally) the dots are rendered. If you have lots of dots and they are extending too far horizontally, reduce this value; for the opposite effect increase this value. distdotspread=1.5
distdotshape circle
square
diamond
triangle
diamond The shape of the individual dots. distdotshape=square
distdotsize inches or cm 0.04 " The radius of the individual data point dots. distdotsize=0.025
distcenter 0 to 10 4 When doing a centered (beeswarm) display, controls the location of the center of the display in X, using a data space ranging from 0 to 10. distcenter=3


Pertaining to the rangebars (boxplots)

Prefab
parameter
name
Data type DefaultDescription Examples
(ignore line wrapping)
rangebar yes orno yes Controls the rangebar portion of the display. May be specified as no to completely omit the rangebar portion and show distributions only. rangebar=no
barcolor color dullyellow Color of the interior of the rangebar. barcolor=pink
barwidth inches or cm 0.2 " Width of the rangebar. barwidth=0.12
mediansym dot
or
line
or
smboldetails
line Symbol for representing the median. By default a line segment is used. Use dot to get a small black dot, or specify a different data point symbol. mediansym=dot
showoutliers yes
or
no
no If yes, show outlier data points (points lying beyond the tails). The normal way of showing outliers is by short line segments, but data point symbols can be specified (outliernearsym, outlierfarsym). If id is specified, the outliers will be labelled. showoutliers=yes
id

id2
datafield   A data field containing identifier strings. If specified, and if outliers are being displayed in the rangebar (boxplot) portion of the display, these identifier strings will be used to identify outlier data points. Similarly, id2 may be used with the second (right panel) distribution. id=5
rangebarcenter 0 to 10   Controls the location of the center of the rangebar in X, using a data space ranging from 0 to 10. The default location is at X=8, or if rangebars alone are being displayed, at X=3. rangebarcenter=6

Additional parameters

The following parameters are available for the rangebar/boxplot, and are exactly as described in the proc rangebar manual page .. see that page for descriptions and usage. All are optional.

outlierlinelen   length of the outlier line segments

tailmode   modes for what the tails represent

95tics   add tics to show 5th and 95th percentiles

taildetails   appearance details for tails

outline   outline the bars

outliernearsym   symbol for "near" outliers

outlierfarsym   symbol for "far" outliers

outliernearfarcutoff   cutoff determining when an outlier is near vs. far






data display engine  
Copyright Steve Grubb


Ploticus is hosted at http://ploticus.sourceforge.net
SourceForge Logo


Markup created by unroff 1.0,    June 02, 2006.