binStart Function (GPL)

Syntax

binStart(<value> ...)

<value>. An integer or quoted date literal indicating the value of the first bin. If there are multiple binned dimensions, you can specify the first bin for each dimension. Use commas to separate the multiple first bins. For example, binStart(0,10) specifies 0 as the first bin on dimension 1 and 10 as the first bin on dimension 2. If you specify a value for one dimension, you have to specify a value for all dimensions.

Description

Specifies the value of the first bin. You can use the function to make sure bins begin at a specified value, regardless of the data values. Note that the first bin may not be drawn if there are no actual data values in that bin. However, the bin is still included when determining the number of bins and their widths.

If the specified value is greater than the lowest data value on the dimension, this function does not really specify the starting value of the first bin because the function can never exclude smaller values from the bins. Rather, the function specifies the starting value for some other bin, depending on the width or number of bins. There may be one or more bins that precede the specified value.

Examples

Figure 1. Example: Specifying the first bin on a continuous scale

ELEMENT: interval(position(summary.count(bin.rect(salary, binStart(10000)))))

Figure 2. Example: Specifying the first bin on a date scale

ELEMENT: interval(position(summary.count(bin.rect(saledate, binStart("01/20/2003")))))

Figure 3. Example: Specifying the first bin for multiple binned dimensions

ELEMENT: interval(position(bin.rect(x*y, dim(1,2), binStart(2000,1000))))