topic Re: Proc sgplot - Easy way to format dates on xaxis to show only month, no year? in Graphics Programming

Proc sgplot - Easy way to format dates on xaxis to show only month, no year?

scmeyer — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 01:52:33 GMT

I'm overlaying cumulative distributions from multiple years in one plot, plotting the cumulative percentage by date. I had to convert all dates to the same year to get them to all plot on the same xaxis. The xaxis tick marks are months, but SAS insists on showing the year on this axis. The date values are formatted as 'MMDDYY4.' but SAS overrides the formats and uses auto date formats.

Is there any way to format the x axis to display only the month?

Code:

proc sgplot data=CumulH;
series x=dummydate y=cum_pct/group = year;
xaxis label='Date' max = '01DEC2000'd;
run;

Re: Proc sgplot - Easy way to format dates on xaxis to show only month, no year?

Reeza — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 02:13:53 GMT

Try using MONNAME3 format to show just the month?

Re: Proc sgplot - Easy way to format dates on xaxis to show only month, no year?

PGStats — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 03:06:00 GMT

Use

xaxis label='Date' max = '01DEC2000'd valuesformat=mmddyy4.;

to override the automatic date format.

Re: Proc sgplot - Easy way to format dates on xaxis to show only month, no year?

scmeyer — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 06:10:42 GMT

Thanks, tried formatting dummydate as MONNAME3., and even though the data appear in that format in the data file the plot still ignores it.

The log shows:

NOTE: The column format MONNAME3 is replaced by an auto-generated format on the axis.

I should have mentioned in the original post that I am using SAS 9.3 TS 1M0.

Re: Proc sgplot - Easy way to format dates on xaxis to show only month, no year?

scmeyer — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 06:22:39 GMT

Thanks, interesting idea. I was looking for a way to override the default format. I should have mentioned in the original post that I'm using SAS 9.3. The valuesformat option is not listed for the xaxis statement in the SAS 9.3 ODS Graphics Procedures Guide (Second Edition). Is that available in SAS 9.4? I tried it anyway, and this was the log response:

627    xaxis label='Date' max = '01DEC2000'd valuesformat=mmddyy4.;
                                             ------------ --------
                                             1            79
                                                          76
WARNING 1-322: Assuming the symbol VALUES was misspelled as valuesformat.
ERROR 79-322: Expecting a (.
ERROR 76-322: Syntax error, statement will be ignored.
628 run;

Re: Proc sgplot - Easy way to format dates on xaxis to show only month, no year?

DanH_sas — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 15:09:48 GMT

Since you have SAS 9.3, use TICKVALUEFORMAT instead of VALUESFORMAT. VALUESFORMAT is correct name of the option for SAS 9.4 and beyond, but TICKVALUEFORMAT will continue to work.

Re: Proc sgplot - Easy way to format dates on xaxis to show only month, no year?

scmeyer — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 17:52:36 GMT

Perfect, thanks! I don't know why I didn't see that sooner.