Preface
A wise man once said:
“A motivated SAS/GRAPH programmer can create just about any graph.”
In this book, I try to give you the knowledge and inspiration to be that programmer.
These days, anybody can create a simple graph. Many companies provide software with a
simple GUI (Graphical User Interface) that enables users to point-and-click their way
through a gallery of graphs, select which variables to plot, and produce a mediocre graph.
Given how easy it is to make them, you might ask, “How can I make my graphs stand out?”
A lot of people fall into the trap of trying to make their graphs stand out by being fancier.
They add bright colors, three-dimensional effects, images in the background, and sometimes
make the charts fade-in, spring-up, or oscillate before coming to a rest where you can finally
read them. But fancier is not necessarily better, and in the case of graphs, such fancy
additions usually make the graph more difficult to read and quickly comprehend, so making
the graph fancier can actually make the graph worse rather than better.
I encourage you to make your graphs stand out by being better, rather than fancier. And by
better, I mean graphs that show the data more clearly, and make it easier for people to look
at the graph and quickly answer the questions the graph was created to answer in the first
place. And in order to do that, you will need to learn to customize your graphs.

Acknowledgements
Preface
Example 1 Bar with Annotated Marker
Example 2 Using PROC GREPLAY For Custom Dashboard Layout
Example 3 Paneling Multiple Graphs on a Page
Example 4 Using an Image As Part of the Graph
Example 5 Customizing a Map
Example 6 Overlay G3D Surfaces
Example 7 Adding Border Space
Example 8 Determine Customers Within Map Borders
Example 9 Determine Customers Within Circular Radius
Example 10 Custom Box Plots
Example 11 Using Company Logos in Graphs
Example 12 Annotated Map Borders
Example 13 Population Tree Charts
Example 14 Sparkline Table
Example 15 Custom Waterfall Chart
Example 16 Plotting Data on Floor Plans
Example 17 Custom Calendar Chart
Example 18 Fancy Line Graph with Broken Axis
Example 19 Drill-down Link to an HTML Anchor
Example 20 Time Series “Strip Plot”
Example 21 GIF Animation
Example 22 Using SAS/IntrNet with Graphs
Example 23 Plotting Coordinates on a Map
Example 24 Plotting Coverage Areas on a Map
Example 25 Plotting Multiple Graphs on the Same Page
Example 26 Grand Finale: An Advanced Dashboard
Now What
Index