topic Re: Using BY to Draw Many HISTOGRAMs in PROC UNIVARIATE in SAS Programming

Using BY to Draw Many HISTOGRAMs in PROC UNIVARIATE

Junyong — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 06:25:32 GMT

How can I output multiple HISTOGRAM image files with BY in PROC UNIVARIATE? Suppose I have the following panel data set.

data _;
do i=1 to 5;
do t=1 to 5;
x=rannor(1);
output;
end;
end;
run;

I tried the following code, but it just overwrote the destination file five times.

filename _ "!userprofile\desktop\_.png";
goption gsfname=_ device=png gsfmode=replace;
ods results=off;
proc univariate noprint;
var x;
by i;
histogram/normal(noprint);
run;
ods results=on;

Here is the log.

11   filename _ "!userprofile\desktop\_.png";
12   goption gsfname=_ device=png gsfmode=replace;
13   ods results=off;
14   proc univariate noprint;
15   var x;
16   by i;
17   histogram/normal(noprint);
18   run;

NOTE: 11265 bytes written to C:\Users\Junyong\desktop\_.png.
NOTE: The above message was for the following BY group:
      i=1
NOTE: 11665 bytes written to C:\Users\Junyong\desktop\_.png.
NOTE: The above message was for the following BY group:
      i=2
NOTE: 10306 bytes written to C:\Users\Junyong\desktop\_.png.
NOTE: The above message was for the following BY group:
      i=3
NOTE: 11258 bytes written to C:\Users\Junyong\desktop\_.png.
NOTE: The above message was for the following BY group:
      i=4
NOTE: 10640 bytes written to C:\Users\Junyong\desktop\_.png.
NOTE: The above message was for the following BY group:
      i=5
NOTE: PROCEDURE UNIVARIATE used (Total process time):
      real time           0.65 seconds
      cpu time            0.65 seconds


19   ods results=on;

Is there any way to collect the five HISTOGRAMs separately?

Re: Using BY to Draw Many HISTOGRAMs in PROC UNIVARIATE

Criptic — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 07:36:33 GMT

If you need an image per seperate histogram my suggestion would be using a macro like this:

%macro multiple_outputs(i);
	filename _&i. "!userprofile\desktop\_&i..png";
	goption gsfname=_ device=png gsfmode=replace;
	ods results=off;

	data work.temp;
		set _;
		where i = &i.;
	run;

	proc Univariate noprint;
		var x;
		by i;
		histogram/normal(noprint);
	run;

	ods results=on;
%mend multiple_outputs;

data _null_;
	set _;
	by i;

	if first.i then
		do;
			arg1 = '%nrstr(%multiple_outputs('!!i!!'));';
			call execute(arg1);
		end;
run;

But I believe somebody will have a solution without having to fall back on macro code which would be a better solution, but I don't know one. I hope this helps you anyways.

Kind Regards

Criptic

Re: Using BY to Draw Many HISTOGRAMs in PROC UNIVARIATE

BrunoMueller — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 12:19:09 GMT

Proc UNIVARIATE uses ODS Graphics

You can achieve this as follows:

data have;
  do i=1 to 5;
    do t=1 to 5;
      x=rannor(1);
      output;
    end;
  end;
run;

ods _all_ close;

ods listing gpath="c:\temp";
ods graphics on;
ods graphics / reset=index imagefmt=png imagename="hist_#byval(i)";
title "Histogram for #byline";

proc univariate data=have noprint;
  var x;
  by i;
  histogram/normal(noprint) odstitle=title;
/*  format i z3.;*/
run;

title;

Some notes on the code.

Using the ODS LISTING destination you can specify the GPATH option to say where the graphics files are written too.
Since SAS9.4M5 you can make use of the #BY... substitutions in the IMAGENAME option of ODS GRAHICS like you could in the TITLE statement, but now for the image name, otherwise is just numbers them.
To have the TITLE text in your graphics file you use the ODSTITLE=TITLE option on the HISTOGRAM statement