GTL 9.3: Difference between DISCRETEATTRMAP and GraphData

[adqs]

Dear Community,

I am wondering was the difference between the Discreteattrmap and the GraphData Statement ist? Apparently you can specify colors, linestyles and markersybols in both according to http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/graphref/63022/HTML/default/viewer.htm#a003139665.htm and http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/grstatgraph/65377/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n0b2nx83suvy1z..., however, certain commands work only with one of them?

e.g. In the bockplot statment I can't use a discreteattrmap?

Thanks for your help.

Andreas

[djrisks]

Hi Andreas,

A quick overview of the differences between Discreteattrmap and the GraphData, is that when you use the Discreteattrmap and you specify that "Males" should have Blue markers, and "Females" should have Pink markers, then that would always be the case, regardless of drop outs of the data or the sorting order of the data.

Now, the attributes that are selected when you use GraphData are based on the order of the data, and so Females, would obtain the first group GraphData1, which by default is a Blue colour, and Males would obtain the values specified in the second group which by default is a Red colour. However if there where not any Females in the dataset, then Males would now obtain the values specified in GraphData1 which is the Blue colour.

With attributes maps, you need to use the Group = statement to assign the map. The Blockplot has not got the group statement so I guess that is why you can not use attribute maps with that plot.

Thanks.