SAS/GRAPH : Using the Annotate Facility

Transcription

1 SAS/GRAPH : Using the Annotate Facility Jack S. Nyberg, ClinTrials Research, Inc., Lexington, KY. Stuart D. Nichols, ClinTrials Research, Inc., Lexington, KY. ABSTRACT The annotate facility in SAS/GRAPH is a powerful tool for graphic presentation but llotil now has mainly been used io conjunction with the traditional SAS/GRAPH procedures. Used with PROC GANNO, the annotate facility has unlimited power that can create stunning presentation graphics. IN1RODUCTION The SAS/GRAPH software is a very powerful tool. The procedures PROC GCHART, PROC GPLOT, et. al allow the user to present graphic material in a high resolution format. These graphics in tum can be further enhanced by the addition of annotate data sets that allow the user to customize the individnal graphs. Many papers have been written on SAS/GRAPH that use the annotate data set io that manner, but it is possible to overlook the llotapped potential of using the annotate data set with PROC GANNO to create very customized graphic presentations that are uohiodered by the parameters of the various other SAS/GRAPH procedures. When the user masters the annotate facility, the only limiting factor io the quality of the graphical presentation is the imagination of the user. At CIioTrials Research, Inc., we are constantly being asked by our clients to create custom graphics. For example, a physician may want to graphically present the distribution of treatment times of a certain drug for a group of patients. A graph of this nature may be easily done io SAS/GRAPH or HARVARD GRAPIllCS. A more interesting example would be when the client is gearing up to lalloch a periodic report that requires custom graphics and needs to be updated regularly. In this case, the need to automate the process is paramollot. SAS/GRAPH lends itself perfectly to automation. Also sioee the client may want two or more different graphical presentations on... ingle page with the results looking professionally smooth, the annotate facility in SAS/GRAPH is the perfect vehicle. Graph 1 is an example of a graphical presentation that was created by PROC GANNO usiog an annotate data set. In graph 1, we wanted to display a bar chart and an accompanying table on the same page. Before we started using the annotate facility exclusively, the bar chart was generated using PROC GCHART, the table itself was generated using PROC GANNO, and then PROC GREPLAY was used to merge the two images onto one page. The only problem with this approach is that it is very difficult to create images the way the client wants them. PROC GCHART is a great procedure to generate charts. But the trade-offfor its relative ease of use is that the charts generated by PROC GCHART are never quite what we want. To further complicate matters, the bar chart from PROC GCHART and the table from PROC GANNO would then have to be put through PROC GREPLAY. PROC GREPLAY creates graphic output by using templates comprised of panels ioto which the user can put graphic images. In this case, we would have a template with two panels, one on top of the other. The top panel would hold the bar chart, and the bottom panel would hold the table. The problem arises when we try to determioe the dimensions of each pane\. If the aspect ratio of each panel is not the same as the aspect ratio of the image going ioto the panel, then the image is automatically made to fit ioto that panel by PROC GREPLA Y. This causes the image to be scrunched or elongated. Thus by using PROC GCHART and PROC GREPLA Y, the final image is usually somewhat different from what was origioally envisioned. This would generally not be a problem, exeept when the client comes to us with specific ideas on how a presentation should look. Now when a client gives us a drawing of how he wants a table or graph to look, we can usually accommodate his request by usiog the annotate facility. With the annotate facility there are none of the problems associated with usiog PROC GCHART or PROC GREPLA Y since the user is startiog with a blank 721

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3 page and has the freedom to place any graphic image anywhere on the page. So how is the annotate facility used? The general outline of a program. that creates an annotate graphic image is as follows (using SAS 6.06): J. FILENAME 2. GOPTIONS 3. %ANNOMAC 4. ANNOTATE DATA SET 5. PROC GANNO FILENAME The FILENAME statement specifies a file. After PROC GANNO creates the graphic image, it is sent to and stored in the file specified by the FILENAME statement. From there the graphic image can be printed. GOPTIONS The GOPTIONS statement contains the parameters to the SAS/GRAPH session. For example, what are the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the output area? How many rows and columns of output area will there be? Is the output going to be sent to the screen or to an output file? All of these parameters can be specified with the GOPTIONS statement. In our experience, the programmer should assign values to all relevant parameters instead of leaving SAS/GRAPH to assign default values. By doing so, the programmer greatly reduces the possibility of receiving "surprise" output. *GACCESS: Some important GOPTIONS are as follows: Specifies the format and destination of graphics data. We use GACCESS= SASGAEDT. This allows us to edit the output file if necesaary. * GSFMODE: Specifies whether to append or replace the output currently in the output file. * DEVICE: Specifies a device driver. If we want to send the graphic image to a file to be printed, then a device driver for the printer must be specified. In our case, we use Hewlett Packard nr printers with Postscript" fonts. We set DEVICE=Q800PLUS. * ROTATE: Specifies whether to create the grsphic image in landscape or portrait orientation. * VSIZE: Sets the vertical length of the graphic * HSlZE: Sets the horizontal length of the graphic * VPOS: Sets the number of rows in the grsphic * HPOS: Sets the number of columns in the graphic * VORIGIN: With HORIGIN, sets the lower-left coordinates of the graphic Used to help set the margins. * HORIGIN: See VORIGIN. * GPROLOG: Sends a string to the output file before the graphic commands. We use GPROLOG to enable the Postscript fonts on our printers. * GEPILOG: Sends a string to the output file after the graphic commands have been sent. We use GEPILOG to disenable the Postscript fonts. * GSFLEN: GSFNAME: Controls the line length in the output file. This ensures that the code in the output file never gets too long for our editor software. We use GSFLEN=132. Specifies a fileref for the graphics output. Usually the file referenced in the FILENAME statement is used. %ANNOMAC The %ANNOMAC macro compiles the annotate macros and makes them available for use. But what are annotate macros? See ANNOTATE DATA SET. 723

4 ANNOTATE DATA SET The annotate data set is where the code for the graphic output is created. Literally, the programmer writes code that tells SAS/GRAPH how to draw the graphic image. Anyone familiar with SAS/GRAPH knows how laborious it is to use the annotate variables to create graphic output, and we would not suggest using the annotate facility to create graphs if the only option would be to use the annotate variables. Fortunately, annotate macros exist. These macros enable the programmer to create in one line of code what had previously taken several. For example, DATA OLD; LENG1H FUNCTION STYLE $ 8 POSITION $ 1 TEXT $ 110; FUNCTION = 'LABEL'; X=10; Y=8; SIZE=0.8; POSmON='6'; STYLE= 'SWISS'; TEXT='TlTLE ONE'; OUTPUT; is an example of code that uses annotate variables. The same code that uses annotate macros follows: %ANNOMAC; DATA NEW; %LABEl..(1O,8, 'T\1LE ONE',BLACK,.,.,0.8,SWISS,6); In both data sets, the programmer creates a line of text. In the second data set, the % LABEL annotate macro enables the programmer to condense his code into one macro with nine parameters. %MOVE(x,y): %MOVE Moves the cursor to a point in the graphic x: Horizontal coordinate. y: Vertical coordinate. %DRAW %DRA W(x,y,color,line,size): Draws a line to the (x,y) coordinates specified. x,y: Horizontal and vertical color: Color of the line. line: Type of line (solid, dashed, etc.). size: Width of line. %LABEL %LABEl..(x,y,text,color,angle,rotate,size,style,position): Puts a specified text-string at specified x,y: text: color: angle: rotate: size: style: position: Horizontaland vertical Text to be displayed. Color of text. Angle of character baseline. Rotation angle of each character. Height of text-string. Font used for text. Placement and alignment of text. There are many annotate macros, but the four that we use most often are the following: 1. %MOVE 2. %DRAW 3. %LABEL 4. %BAR 724

5 %BAR(xl,yl,x2,y2,color, line, style ): Creates a bar at the specified xl,yl: Coordinates of the lower-left hand comer of the bar. x2,y2: Coordinates of the upper-right hand comer of the bar. color: Color of the bar. line: How the bar is outlined. style: Fill pattern of the bar. This sample code will create a triangle with a label. The graphic output will be sent to a file called EXAMPLE. OUT. Once the programmer becomes familiar with these three basic annotate macros, more complicated graphic images can be created. SAS FONTS vs. HARDWARE FONTS In the %LABEL statement for the sample code, we used SWISS as our style parameter. Usually we use Postscript fonts instead of SAS fonts. If SAS fonts are used in place of hardware fonts, the size of the file becomes remarkably huge. The printer slows down considerably when processing such large files. PROCGANNO The PROC GANNO statement processes the annotate data set and outputs the graphic image. EXAMPLE CODE FILENAME TEST 'C:\EXAMPLE.OUT'; GOPTIONS GACCESS=SASGAEDT GSFNAME=TEST GSFMODE=REPLACE DEVICE = Q800PLUS NOBORDER NOPROMPT ROTATE=PORTRAIT VSIZE= 10.0 HSIZE=7.S VPOS= 100 HPOS=80 VORIGIN=O.5 HORIGIN=O.5; DATA POOKIE; LENGTH FUNCTION STYLE $ 8 POSmON$1 TEXT $ 110; %MOVE(S,40); %DRA W(40,80,BLACK,3); %DRA W(7S,40,BLACK,3); %DRAW(S,40,BLACK,3); %LABEL(40,36, "TRIANGLE",BLACK,.,., 2.0,SWISS,S); CONCLUSION To use the SAS/GRAPH annotate facility may at first appear to be a formidable task. But we hope that by encouraging the reader to try the annotate facility, he will discover that it is not as difficult as it first appears. In fact, once mastered it is a powerful graphic tool with unlimited potential. REFERENCES SAS Institute, Inc. (1990), SAS/GRAPH Software: Reference. Version 6. First Edition. Volume I, Cary, NC: SAS Institute Inc. SAS Institute, Inc. (1990), SAS/GRAPH Software: Syntax. Version 6. First Edition, Cary, NC: SAS Institute Inc. SAS and SAS/GRAPH are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies. PROC GANNO ANNOTATE=POOKIE; 725