topic Unicode in HREFLABEL in SAS Programming

Unicode in HREFLABEL

ekomaroff — Sun, 23 Apr 2023 17:14:22 GMT

I created a Histogram with a reference line in Proc Univariate. Now I am trying to add the lower case Greek letter "alpha" to the reference line with the following command: hreflabel="^{unicode alpha}=.05"; However, the label is the text string " ^{unicode alpha}" with no number nor Greek letter. I tried other Unicode commands like 03B1 but same result. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Re: Unicode in HREFLABEL

Ksharp — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 11:42:31 GMT

proc sgplot data=sashelp.heart;
histogram weight;
refline 250/axis=x label="(*ESC*){unicode alpha}=.05";
run;

Re: Unicode in HREFLABEL

ekomaroff — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 12:37:43 GMT

Yes, thank you. I knew how to add Unicode symbols to "Label" statements in general. Here, I want to get it working in "HREFLABEL" statement in the Histogram from Proc Univariate. I have a few good reasons for working with the Univariate histogram, instead of the SGPLOT histogram. If it is not possible, then I will simply put "alpha" in Roman letters but would prefer the Greek lowercase letter.

Re: Unicode in HREFLABEL

FreelanceReinh — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 13:21:53 GMT

Hello @ekomaroff,

Writing 'a' with the Symbol font results in 'a':

proc univariate data=sashelp.heart;
var weight;
histogram / href=250 hreflabel='a=.05' infont='Symbol';
run;

Re: Unicode in HREFLABEL

ekomaroff — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 13:42:43 GMT

Brilliant, thank you! One more puzzle please. With your solution the label appears to the left of the reference line. Is there an option to get the label to the right of the reference line?

Re: Unicode in HREFLABEL

FreelanceReinh — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 14:19:32 GMT

@ekomaroff wrote:
With your solution the label appears to the left of the reference line. Is there an option to get the label to the right of the reference line?

Using my (or rather Ksharp's) sashelp.heart example I get the label to the right of the reference line, which seems to be the default position. However, if I move the reference line far to the right (href=300), the label position switches to the left of the line, apparently because now there's not enough space on the other side. After creating sufficient space by adding an AXIS statement (to add one tick mark >300),

axis1 order=(70 to 310 by 10);

which I refer to in the HISTOGRAM statement options,

histogram / href=300 hreflabel='a=.05' haxis=axis1 infont='Symbol';

the label moves back to the right of the reference line.

Re: Unicode in HREFLABEL

ekomaroff — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 14:31:43 GMT

I very much appreciate your effort, time and expert help. However, after I posted the question, I played around with more options (below) and the label moved to the right. Mysterious, but this is a one-off project so am very happy now. Working with you has made my day! Thanks again.

hreflabel='a = .05' infont='Symbol' LHREF=3 HREFLABPOS=1 chref = bio;

Re: Unicode in HREFLABEL

ballardw — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 15:39:34 GMT

In general I consider the analysis procs as exploratory when it comes to graphics. If I want a specific appearance then it usually much quicker to export the needed data from the procedure and use a dedicated procedure such as Sgplot or Sgpanel to create a desired appearance.

Most of the plots as part of analysis procedures have very few elements that you can control with options in the procedure and you can spend a lot of time playing with stuff and never get what you want.

Note that SGPLOT has a HISTOGRAM statement, so Univariate may not even be needed but might reduce the time "guessing" about likely bid widths or axis ranges.

The REFLINE statement in SGPLOT lets place labels inside or outside of the plot area, LABELLOC, and on the minimum or maximum value of the axis (left right when horizontal, top bottom when vertical) with LABELPOS. You also have more control over line and text appearance.