Visualizing Data
hands-on workshop
Nov 13, 2014
Instructor: Erika Mudrak | elm26@cornell.edu | @Erika Mudrak
In General
Take the graph as far as you can in your statistical software.
Then export (or Save As) a:
 raster format – small file size, variable resolution (.png and .tif are the best, .jpg is common)
 vector format – large file size, no resolution issues (.emf or .wmf for PC, .svg for Macs)
Edit in another graphics program:
 PowerPoint – Widely available and many already know how to use it
 Adobe Illustrator (advanced and $$)
 InkScape (advanced and free! https://inkscape.org/en/)
Software-Specific Tips
Stata
Basic Graphics Overview
http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/graphics/gph/stata-graphs/
http://www.ats.ucla.edu/STAT/stata/library/GraphExamples/default.htm
Small Multiples
http://www.stata.com/manuals13/g-2graphcombine.pdf
Log-scale axes
http://www.stata.com/manuals13/g-3axis_scale_options.pdf
http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/graphics/box-plots-and-logarithmic-scales/
Contour Maps/HeatMaps
http://www.stata.com/stata12/contour-plots/
Direct Labeling
http://www.stata.com/manuals13/g-3marker_label_options.pdf
Colors
http://www.stata.com/manuals13/g-4colorstyle.pdf
http://statadaily.ikonomiya.com/2010/09/23/color-palette/
JMP
Basic Graphics Overview
http://www.jmp.com/support/help/Graph_Builder.shtml#532017
http://www.jmp.com/support/help/Introduction_to_Interactive_Graphing.shtml#780063
http://www.jmp.com/support/help/Alter_Plot_and_Chart_Appearances.shtml
Choose chart type along top. Use shift to overlay two chart types.
Small Multiples
Graph Builder: To make panels, drag a categorical variable into the “Group X” or “Group Y” box. Make a
grid by dragging the variable into the “Wrap” box in the upper right corner.
Log-scale axes
Graph Builder: Right click on axis, Choose “Axis Settings.”
Contour Maps/HeatMaps
Standard Options along with other graph types
Direct Labeling
Graph Builder: Option appears on left for bar and pie charts.
Unclear how to do more complicated labels
Colors
Right click on key to choose color, also option for transparency
SPSS
Basic Graphics Overview
Chart Builder: http://www01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSLVMB_22.0.0/com.ibm.spss.statistics.tut/spss/tutorials/bchar
ttut_intro.htm
Graphboard Template Chooser guides graph choice, but is harder to edit.
Graphs  Legacy dialogs if you know what you want to make
Once graph is made in the output window, double click it to open the Chart Editor.
Small Multiples
https://andrewpwheeler.wordpress.com/tag/small-multiples/
Log-scale axes
In Chart Editor, double click axis, choose scale tab, find the Scale pull-down menu and change from Linear to
Logarithmic.
Contour Maps/HeatMaps
Not technically a heatmap, but a similar result:
https://andrewpwheeler.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/visualization-techniques-for-large-n-scatterplotsin-spss/
Direct Labeling
Haven’t found yet
Colors
In Chart Editor, double click on the element, choose tab “Fill & Border.” Get rgb and hsv values by
double clicking on a color swatch.
SAS
Basic Graph Gallery:
http://support.sas.com/sassamples/graphgallery/
Small Multiples
http://sas-and-r.blogspot.com/2011/11/example-916-small-multiples.html
http://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings09/219-2009.pdf
Log-scale axes
http://support.sas.com/kb/25/505.html
Contour Maps and HeatMaps
http://support.sas.com/sassamples/graphgallery/PROC_GCONTOUR.html
Direct Labeling
https://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings10/237-2010.pdf
Colors
http://blogs.sas.com/content/iml/2014/10/01/colors-for-heat-maps/
R
Basic Graphics Overview
http://www.statmethods.net/graphs/
http://shinyapps.stat.ubc.ca/r-graph-catalog/
Ggplot overview
http://docs.ggplot2.org/current/
Small Multiples
In base graphics: In general, use par(mfrow=c(nrow, ncols)) but be careful about margins (set with
par(mar=c(x,x,x,x), oma=c(x,x,x,x), mgp=c(x,x,x))
More detail: http://seananderson.ca/courses/11-multipanel/multipanel.pdf
In lattice: http://teachpress.environmentalinformatics-marburg.de/2013/06/producing-panel-plots-i-esmall-multiples-using-lattice-2/
Or use ggplot2 with facets http://gettinggeneticsdone.blogspot.com/2010/01/ggplot2-tutorialscatterplots-in-series.html
Log-scale axes
x=rnorm(1000,15,5)
y=exp(x/10)+rnorm(1000,0,0.2)
plot(x, y)
plot(x, log(y))
plot(x,y,log="y")
Contour Maps/HeatMaps
http://support.sas.com/sassamples/graphgallery/PROC_GCONTOUR_Graph_Types_Plots_Contour.html
http://blogs.sas.com/content/iml/2014/09/29/discrete-heat-maps/
Direct Labeling
text(): http://www.statmethods.net/advgraphs/axes.html
directlables package
http://directlabels.r-forge.r-project.org/ http://kbroman.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/quick-labelswithin-figures-done-right/
Colors
http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~tzheng/files/Rcolor.pdf
RColorBrewer package
functions: rgb() col2rgb() specifies according to rgb scale
rainbow() gray() colorRamp() all give continuous color palletes