Introductions A thunderstorm or rain-drop scatter plot is a useful tool for data visualization and outlier detection, especially for data with two or more values on the y-axis corresponding to one value on the x-axis (Liu, 2013). Liu's paper presents examples on how to produce thunderstorm scatter plots using the SAS/GRAPH annotate facility. The thunderstorm scatter plots can be produced in ODS Graphics SGPLOT without having to use the annotate facility. The "rain-drop" connecting the two data points on the y-axis can be formed by using the HIGHLOW statement. This posting presents SAS programs in both SAS/GRAPH and ODS Graphics to produce PDF and RTF version of thunderstorm scatter plots based on one of the examples in the original paper. Besides putting all the three thunderstorm figures in one PDF and RTF file, I also tried to save each individual figure in post-script (ps) and enhanced window metafile (emf) file. The SAS programs, PDF files produced in both GPLOT and SGPLOT, and the Log file are attached (RTF files cannot be atached). I use SAS 9.3. Questions: I would greatly appreciate your comments/suggestions and especially answers SAS/GRAPH related questions. 1) Within one GPLOT, when I use more than one plot statements to produce multiple figures, it seems SAS cannot save each figure using the FILENAME statement? I use 3 FILENAME statements trying to save the 3 figures in one GPLOT in either .ps or .emf file but do not see actual files saved. 2) There is a warning "WARNING: Unsupported device 'PSCOLOR' for RTF destination. Using default device 'SASEMF" when the macro %Thunderstorm_GPLOT (driver=sasemf, ext=emf, fontname=Courier New)is called. The SASEMF device driver is specified in the macro, why SAS still gives this warning. 3) When the figures in the PDF file are enlarged (e.g. 10 times) the open and filled circles are not perfect, but in curry shape. I can tell they are still in Vector format with good quality, but curious why they are not in perfect circle? Is this an know issue with SAS/GRAPH? Or something wrong with the fonts I used? the one in SGPLOT are in perfect circles. ODS Graphics Related Questions 1) The format statement "format subj_index siteid." does not work as expected in SGPLOT. Only part of the site numbers are shown in the x-axis. Anything wrong with the codes? 2) The reference line labels are automatically positioned along the middle of the reference lines. Is there an easy way to put it right after the reference line? 3) In SAS/GRAPH we can use "des=" after the plot statement to specify the lower-level bookmarks. This is not available in SGPLOT, at least in SAS 9.3. Will this feature be available in future release? Sample Figures and SAS Programs (Attached) References Liu, C. 2013. Introducing and Producing Thunderstorm or Rain-drop Scatter Plots Using the SAS/GRAPH ® Annotate Facility. SAS Global Forum 2013 Proceedings. http://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings13/357-2013.pdf TS-674: An Introduction to Exporting SAS/Graph Output to Microsoft Office SAS Release 8.2 and higher. http://support.sas.com/techsup/technote/ts674/ts674.html
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