Display every other date label in SGPlot without changing the number of bars

[mae_day]

I have been graphing the number of Product A manufactured and the percent prevalence of defects by week. The data begins in early June and by this point the x axis is getting awfully congested. I would like to change the labeling to show the start date of every other week. I am not sure how much longer these graphs will be needed, so hard coding the tick marks seems like a bit of a pain. I tried including values=(date1 to date2 by 14), however, this combines the two weeks of data into one bar and I need all of the bars. I then tried using mod(date, 2)=0 to select every other date, but can't figure out how to only apply this to the labels. I also tried using formats, but since the graph has data from both 2020 to 2021, it creates a mess. Below is how I created the week variables, my original SGPlot code for the original graph I have, and for the one which creates the combined bars. I have attached a pdf of the graph outputs and a tab delimited file with some sample observations for one of the warehouses.

/*Create week variables*/
data demo; set foo;
	week1=week(date,"u");
	nweek=week1-22;
run;

data demo2; set demo;
	if first.nweek then displayweek=date; /*show first day of each week*/
		displayweek+0;
	if last.nweek then graphweek=displayweek;
run;

/*Graphs*/
title "Original";
proc sgplot data=demo2; 
xaxis label="Week Beginning" labelattrs=(size=12pt weight=bold)
	valueattrs=(size=12pt);
yaxis min=0 label="Count" INTEGER labelattrs=(size=12pt weight=bold)
	valueattrs=(size=13pt) fitpolicy=thin offsetmin=0;
y2axis min=0 label="%" labelattrs=(size=12pt weight=bold)
	valueattrs=(size=13pt) fitpolicy=thin offsetmin=0;

vbar graphweek/response=count legendlabel="Number";
vline graphweek/response=pct y2axis legendlabel="Percent"
	lineattrs=(thickness=2)
	markers MARKERATTRS=(symbol=TriangleFilled);

run;

title "Fix Attempt";
proc sgplot data=demo2; 
xaxis label="Week Beginning" interval=auto  
	values=('07jun20'd to &lastday by 14) valuesformat=date.
	labelattrs=(size=12pt weight=bold) valueattrs=(size=12pt);
yaxis min=0 label="Count" INTEGER labelattrs=(size=12pt weight=bold)
	valueattrs=(size=13pt) fitpolicy=thin offsetmin=0;
y2axis min=0 label="Percent" labelattrs=(size=12pt weight=bold)
	valueattrs=(size=13pt) fitpolicy=thin offsetmin=0;

vbar graphweek/response=count legendlabel="Number";
vline graphweek/response=pct y2axis legendlabel="Percent"
	lineattrs=(thickness=2)
	markers MARKERATTRS=(symbol=TriangleFilled);

run;

[ballardw]

With a large and apparently growing number of categories I would suggest moving from VBAR to NEEDLE plot.

Two required parameters x=graphweek and y=count and set a needle width large enough to look "bar" like with the LINEATTRS=( Thickness= n ) option. You even get to specify a unit type like CM MM or IN for the thickness. 5mm  would make the "bars" 5mm wide.

Then your xaxis can use date ranges like Values = ('01JAN2021'd to '01OCT2021'd by month) to create one tick mark per month. If you end up with long enough series then you can use "by quarter" or even "by year".

[mae_day]

Apologies for the delayed response. This was so close to working! I had to adjust the weeks because any week with less than 7 days, caused an overlapping bar. Unfortunately it's highly likely that I will need to send out this graph at various points during the week (e.g. not always at the end of a week), so the last week displayed is off (see attached picture). I tried further adjusting the bar widths, but it didn't help.

Any suggestions?

[PGStats]

Try adding option FITPOLICY=THIN or FITPOLICY=STAGGERTHIN to your XAXIS statement.