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User-Defined Variability Plots

Aug 6

Written by: STATISTICA News
8/6/2009 9:38 AM 

One of the many useful features available to STATISTICA users is the ability to create customized graphs from a data set and then to save these customized graphs to the Graphs menu as User-defined Graphs. You can use the user-defined graphs facilities to save all of the options specified during the initial graph specification in the form of a new graph “type.” This graph can then be used with the same or a different input data file to create similar analytic or presentation output with a minimum of required input.

User-defined graphs can be named and saved via the options in the New User-defined Graph dialog (accessible by clicking the Add As User-defined Graph to Menu button on the Options 2 tab of any graph specification dialog). Once saved, these “templates” can be accessed by name from the Graphs - User-defined Graphs submenu.
More specifically, with the Variability Plot graph type, there are numerous options concerning the graph formatting (e.g., boxes around groups, display overall mean or median, whether to display lines with the mean for each level, etc.) that can be set and stored as a user-defined graph for simplifying the creation in the future.
Let’s take a look at how to create and use a user-defined graph for the Variability Plots graph type:
First, open the data set Exp.sta. A portion of the data file is shown below:
User Defined Variable Plots Step 1
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For this example, we want to produce a graph where the dependent variable is Stress R. Time, Group, and Gender will be the grouping variables. We want the graph always to display Gender, Group, and Time nested as shown in the following image, with the group means for Time connected by lines, the Group groups surrounded by boxes, and the Group and Gender groups separated by lines. Additionally, we want to see all grouping factor variable names on the X-Axis surrounded by boxes. We also want to display the custom title Sample Custom VarPlot at the top of this variability plot. The next image is an illustration of the graph we will produce with these criteria.
User Defined Variable Plots Step 2
Following are the steps to create the graph as shown above.
  1. From the Graphs > 2D Graphs submenu, select Variability Plots to display the Variability Plot dialog.
            User Defined Variable Plots Step 3
  1. Click the Variables button to display the variable selection dialog. Select variable 5, STRESS_R, as the Dependent variable. Select variables 2, 1, and 3 as the Grouping variables. As shown below, the dialog will sort the grouping variables in order regardless of the order in which they are selected.
            User Defined Variable Plots Step 4
Therefore, you will need to place the cursor in the text box underneath Grouping variable and manually type in the grouping variables 2 1 3 in that order as shown in the next illustration.
            User Defined Variable Plots Step 5
  1. Click OK in the Select Variables for Variability Plot dialog to accept the variable selection, close this dialog, and return to the Variability Plot dialog.
            User Defined Variable Plots Step 6
            You can now specify the formatting of the factors.        
  1. With Gender selected on the Factors tab, clear the Put boxes around groups check box , select the Display vertical lines between factors check box, leave the Put box around organizing factor labels check box selected, and change the Mean/Median list box selection to Mean.
            User Defined Variable Plots Step 7
  1. Now select Group on the Factors tab. Select the Display vertical lines between factors check box, and leave the Put boxes around groups and the Put box around organizing factor labels check boxes selected.
            User Defined Variable Plots Step 8
  1. Select Time on the Factors tab. Clear the Put boxes around groups check box and select the Connect means/medians check box.
            User Defined Variable Plots Step 9
  1. Select the Options 1 tab in the Variability Plot dialog, and select the Automatically close this dialog after graph is created check box. Also, enter the title Sample Custom VarPlot in the Custom title box.
            User Defined Variable Plots Step 10
  1. Next, select the Options 2 tab. Click the Add As User-defined Graph to Menu button to display the New User-defined Graph dialog. Enter CustomVarPlotOne in the Menu name field.
            User Defined Variable Plots Step 11
  1. Click OK in the New User-defined Graph dialog, and click OK in the Variability Plot dialog, and the custom user-created variability plot is displayed.
            User Defined Variable Plots Step 12
Note that it is identical to the variability plot shown at the beginning of this example.
  1. Now, select Graphs > User-defined Graphs on the STATISTICA classic toolbar.
            User Defined Variable Plots Step 13
Notice that CustomVarPlotOne has been added to the submenu.
  1. Select CustomVarPlotOne, and the Variability Plot dialog will be displayed. Click the OK button (change no options; leave everything as is).
            User Defined Variable Plots Step 14
The custom variability plot we just created is displayed.
Note that it is identical to the variability plot we produced before. Even the custom title Sample Custom VarPlot has been added to the graph.
This ability to create User-Defined Graphs and to save them to the STATISTICA Graphs menu can save users hours of time and hundreds or even thousands of key strokes in situations where periodic, repetitive graphical analyses are performed.
 

 

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