SGPLOT: Legend is unreadable. I think it's trying to write out every x-axis value

[lchristensen]

SS V9.4 on Windows Server

My data includes a date/time field (CurrentTime) and an interval of time in minutes (CTDelta_Time_In_Minutes). The SGPLOT should have the CurrentTime value on the x-axis and the CTDelta_Time_In_Minutes on the y-axis....and it doesn't.

The CurrentTime value is date/time including seconds. There may be as many as 12 records for every hour. The input dataset could contain weeks, maybe even months, of data.

The problem is the legend is unintelligible. I think it's trying to list every value on the chart and that could be thousands. 

What I'd like is to have something like every hour as a marker. Can you offer advice?

SAS code is attached. Also a PDF of the plot is attached as a PDF.

Code:

filename URMETRCS 'z:\Mainframe\lchristensen\URMETRCS\URMETRCS_RPT.csv';
title;
proc import datafile="URMETRCS" out=Work.Report_CSV dbms=csv;
run;
Data Work.URMETRCS_EVENTLOG Work.CTDelta_Time;
infile URMETRCS end=eof length=reclen missover;
data Work.Read_CSV;
set Work.Report_CSV;
format CTDelta_Minutes 6.0;
CTDelta_Minutes = (CTDelta_Secs / 60); /* convert CTDelta_Secs to minutes */
run;
proc print data=Work.Read_CSV noobs uniform;
title "Word.Read_CSV";
run;
proc sort data=Work.Read_CSV nodupkey;
by CurrentTime;
run;
ods pdf;
proc sgplot data=Work.Read_CSV; /* graph with date/time on bottom and CTDelta_Time on y axis */
series x = CurrentTime y = CTDelta_Minutes ;
/* xaxis type = discrete; */
title1 "Hitachi Mainframe Replication Extenstion";
title2 "CTDelta Time in Minutes by Date/Time";
run;
ods pdf close;
quit;

[djrisks]

@lchristensen , can you use the XAXIS option fitpolicy = thin, to only show some tick values? Alternatively can you use the VALUES option to only select some time values to display?

Thanks,

Kriss 

[GraphGuy]

One clarification on the terminology - I think you mean the X-axis, rather than the Legend(?)

Since I don't have your data, I can't say for certain - but I suspect that the value you're plotting on the x-axis is character, rather than a numeric/datetime value. Convert those character values to numeric/datetime values, and then SAS won't feel compelled to show every x-value on the axis. 🙂