FORMAT Subcommand (CASEPLOT command)

FORMAT controls the plot format.

  • The specification on FORMAT is one of the keywords listed below.
  • The keywords NOFILL, LEFT, NOREFERENCE, and REFERENCE apply to plots with one variable. NOFILL and LEFT are alternatives and indicate how the plot is filled. NOREFERENCE and REFERENCE are alternatives and specify whether a reference line is displayed. One keyword from each set can be specified. NOFILL and NOREFERENCE are the defaults.
  • The keywords JOIN, NOJOIN, and HILO apply to plots with multiple variables and are alternatives. NOJOIN is the default. Only one keyword can be specified on a FORMAT subcommand for plots with two variables.

The following formats are available for plots of one variable:

NOFILL. Plot only the values for the variable with no fill. NOFILL produces a plot with no fill to the left or right of the plotted values. This is the default format when one variable is specified.

LEFT. Plot the values for the variable and fill in the area to the left. If the plotted variable has missing or negative values, the keyword LEFT is ignored and the default NOFILL is used instead.

Figure 1. FORMAT=LEFT
FORMAT=LEFT

NOREFERENCE. Do not plot a reference line. This is the default when one variable is specified.

REFERENCE(value) . Plot a reference line at the specified value or at the variable mean if no value is specified. A fill chart is displayed as an area chart with a reference line and a non-fill chart is displayed as a line chart with a reference line.

Figure 2. FORMAT=REFERENCE
FORMAT=REFERENCE

The following formats are available for plots of multiple variables:

NOJOIN. Plot the values of each variable named. Different colors or line patterns are used for multiple variables. Multiple occurrences of the same value for a single observation are plotted using a dollar sign ($). This is the default format for plots of multiple variables.

JOIN. Plot the values of each variable and join the values for each case. Values are plotted as described for NOJOIN, and the values for each case are joined together by a line.

HILO. Plot the highest and lowest values across variables for each case and join the two values together. The high and low values are plotted as a pair of vertical bars and are joined with a dashed line. HILO is ignored if more than three variables are specified, and the default NOJOIN is used instead.