SAS goptions

VALUE=special-symbol | text-string | SPECIAL | NONE

specifies a plot symbol for the data points (GPLOT and GBARLINE).

• If you omit the SYMBOL statement, plot points are generated using the default plot symbols. If you specify a SYMBOL statement, but do not specify the VALUE= option, the plot symbols are suppressed.
• specifies contour-label text in a contour plot (GCONTOUR). By default with the AUTOLABEL option, GCONTOUR labels contour lines with the contour variable's value at that contour level.
• VALUE=SPECIAL enables you to define unique special symbols for up to 12 plots (GPLOT) in one SYMBOL statement. Some of the symbols include the following: CIRCLE, DIAMOND, DIAMONDFILLED, DOT, HASH, PAW, POINT, PLUS, SQUARE, SQUAREFILLED, STAR, TRIANGLE, TRIANGLEFILLED, X, Y, and Z. See Special Symbols for Plotting Data Points for the complete list. This option is useful when the number of plots in your graph is variable. Rather than writing a SYMBOL statement for each possible plot, you can use VALUE=SPECIAL in one SYMBOL statement to define symbols for up to 12 individual plots.
• VALUE=NONE suppresses plot symbols at the data points, or labels on the contour lines. You can set the VALUE=NONE option independent of the INTERPOL= option.

Values for special-symbol are the names and characters shown in Special Symbols for Plotting Data Points. The special symbol table can be used only if the FONT= option is not used or a null value is specified:

font=,

This means that you cannot use VALUE=special-symbol or VALUE=SPECIAL if you are using the FONT= option.

Special Symbols for Plotting Data Points

Note: The words or special characters in the VALUE= column are entered exactly as shown.

To specify a single quotation mark, you must enclose it in double quotation marks:

value="'"

To specify a double quotation mark, you must enclose it in single quotation marks:

value='"'

In some operating environments, punctuation characters might require single quotation marks.

If you use VALUE=text-string to specify a plot symbol, you must also use the FONT= option to specify a symbol font or a text font. If you specify a symbol font, the characters in the string are character codes for the symbols in the font. If you specify a text font, the characters in the string are displayed. If you specify a text string containing quotation marks or blanks, enclose the string in single quotation marks.

For example, if you specify this statement, the plot symbol is the word "plus" instead of the symbol +:

symbol font=swiss value=plus;

Java and ActiveX support the following characters from the Marker Font for special-symbol and SPECIAL:

Marker-font Symbols Supported by Java and ActiveX

Character	Aliases
Marker	Cone, Pyramid, Default
Square	Cube
Star
Circle	Sphere, Dot, Balloon
Plus	Cross
Flag	Y
X
Prism	Z
Spade	“
Heart	#
Diamond	$
Club	%
Hexagon	Paw
Cylinder	Hash

Note: If you do not use a SYMBOL statement to specify a color for each symbol, but you do specify a color list in a GOPTIONS statement, then Java and ActiveX assign colors to symbols differently than do the other device drivers. To ensure consistency on all devices, for VALUE=special-symbol or VALUE=text-string, you should specify the desired color of each symbol. If you do not specify a symbol color, SAS/GRAPH uses the first default color and the first symbol. It uses each color in the list of default colors until the list is exhausted. SAS/GRAPH then selects the next symbol and begins again with the first default color. It rotates the new symbol through the list of default colors before selecting another symbol. It continues selecting new symbols and colors until no more symbols are needed.

For VALUE=SPECIAL, the way in which symbols and their colors are assigned is different from VALUE=special-symbol and VALUE=text-string. For VALUE=SPECIAL, when generating symbols for a plot, rather than rotating each symbol through the list of colors, SAS/GRAPH rotates through the 12 special symbols and assigns each symbol a color from the color list. The symbols and the symbol colors that are used in a plot depend on the following:

• whether a symbol color is specified in the SYMBOL statement or in the GOPTIONS statement
• the number of colors in the color list when a symbol color is not specified

Alias	V=
Restriction	Partially supported by Java and ActiveX
Notes	For ActiveX output, the VALUE= option is not supported when INTERPOL=HILO or INTERPOL=STD. You can use the OVERLAY option with GPLOT to get symbols to appear on the data points.
	The VALUE option overrides the MarkerSymbol attribute in graph styles.
See	Symbol Sequences Generated from SYMBOL Statements
	FONT=font | NONE
	Specifying Plot Symbols
	About Special Fonts and Symbols in JAVA for a description of the special symbols that the Java devices support and the value that you must specify in the SYMBOL statement VALUE= option for each.
	About Special Fonts and Symbols in ACTIVEX for a description of the special symbols that the ActiveX devices support and the value that you must specify in the SYMBOL statement VALUE= option for each.
Examples	Rotating Plot Symbols through the Color List Creating and Modifying Box Plots Labeling Contour Lines, Modifying the Horizontal Axis, Modifying the Legend

WIDTH=thickness-factor

specifies the thickness of interpolated lines (GPLOT) or contour lines (GCONTOUR). thickness-factor is a number. The thickness of the line increases directly with thickness-factor. By default, WIDTH=1.

WIDTH= also affects all the lines in box plots (INTERPOL=BOX), high-low plots with bars (INTERPOL=HILOB), and standard deviation plots (INTERPOL=STD). It also affects the outlines of the area generated by the AREAS= option in the PLOT statement of the GPLOT procedure.

Alias	W=
Style reference	LineThickness attribute of the GraphAxisLines element
Restriction	Partially supported by Java and ActiveX
Notes	By default, the value specified by WIDTH= is used as the default value for the BWIDTH= option. For example, specifying WIDTH=6 also sets BWIDTH= to 6 unless you explicitly assign a value to the BWIDTH= option.
	Java and ActiveX do not provide the same measure of control for width as the other SAS/GRAPH device drivers. Measurements are translated to pixels rather than a percentage. For the JAVA, JAVAIMG, ACTIVEX, and ACTXIMG devices, the maximum width is 6.
Examples	Ordering Axis Tick Marks with SAS Date Values Creating and Modifying Box Plots