topic Re: Placing graph marker symbols in a custom legend in Graphics Programming

Placing graph marker symbols in a custom legend

cdorger — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 18:41:26 GMT

Is there a way to place a marker symbol on a graph using the Graph Template language analogous to the SAS/Graph annotate facility function="SYMBOL"? I want to make a custom legend for a plot and I am using a LAYOUT GRIDDED to place two rows: "<65 Years" and ">=65 Years". I want to place the markers used on the graph before this text. I know you can use DRAWOVAL and BEGINPOLYGON to create shapes but this is complicated and does not look exactly like the marker symbols. Is there a font that would give me access to the markers I use in the plot so that I can place them as a single character? I am using version 9.4.

This works but is awkward and the triangle does not look exactly like the filledtriangle plot marker:

*Draw the symbol/text for the first line of the legend;
drawoval x=89 y=90 width=5 height=5 /xspace=graphpercent yspace=graphpercent anchor=left widthunit=pixel 
									 heightunit=pixel display=(fill) fillattrs=(color=darkblue) transparency=0;
drawtext "<65 Years" / xspace=graphpercent yspace=graphpercent anchor=left width=15 widthunit=percent x=90 y=90;
*Draw the symbol/text for the second line of the legend;
beginpolygon  x=&x0  y=&y0 / xspace=graphpercent yspace=graphpercent transparency=0 display=(fill) fillattrs=(color=darkred);
		draw  x=&x1  y=&y0;
		draw  x=&x2  y=&y1;
endpolygon;
drawtext {unicode "2265"x} "65 Years" / xspace=graphpercent yspace=graphpercent anchor=left width=15 widthunit=percent x=90 y=87;

Re: Placing graph marker symbols in a custom legend

DanH_sas — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 13:55:50 GMT

Instead of using annotation, try using the LEGENDITEM functionality instead. Here is a blog post from Sanjay on how it can be used: https://blogs.sas.com/content/graphicallyspeaking/2017/10/27/legend-items/

Hope this helps!
Dan

Re: Placing graph marker symbols in a custom legend

cdorger — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 16:14:29 GMT

Dan, thanks for this suggestion, it worked really well. I was constructing my plot with the GTL so I used the LEGENDITEM statement with the DISCRETELEGEND statement rather than LEGENDITEM/KEYLEGEND as in Sanjay's blog post. It allowed the ability to place markers and text even with a default legend suppressed. And even with the lattice layout, I was able to place it exactly where I wanted, it works with UNICODE text, get an opaque background, a box around it...everything the client wanted!

I browsed Sanjay's posts but also found a short, simple example in the SAS® 9.4 Graph Template Language: Reference, Fifth Edition, LEGENDITEM statement:

https://documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=grstatgraph&docsetTarget=p0ltl3z1z97jldn14vccmjnrhg2n.htm&docsetVersion=9.4&locale=en#p0fbudelp8ptnan1q4bqonlwzn0o