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<title>ploticus: attribute types</title>
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<td>
<table cellpadding=2 width=550><tr>
<td><br><h2>Attribute types</h2></td>
<td align=right>
<small>
<a href="../doc/welcome.html"><img src="../doc/ploticus.gif" border=0></a><br>
Version 2.41 Mar2009
<td></tr></table>
</td></tr>
<td>
<br>
<br>
<title>Manual page for Attribute_types(PL)</title>
</head>
<body>
<a name=positionunits></a>
<a name=punits></a>
<br><br><br>
<h2>Ploticus positioning units</h2>
<b>Absolute</b> space is measured in inches by default.<tt> </tt>
It can be centimeters if set using the
<a href="pl.1.html#cm">
-cm command line option
</a>
or in your
<a href="config">
config file.<tt> </tt>
</a>
Origin (0,0) is always the <b>lower-left</b> corner of the page or drawing area.<tt> </tt>
You can get absolute locations by previewing a graph in X11 mode and clicking with
the mouse.. coordinates will be written to standard error for each click.<tt> </tt>
<p>
<b>Scaled</b> space is measured in whatever data units are currently in effect
(numeric, date, time, categories, etc.).<tt> </tt>
<p>
For more information, see
<a href="scaleunits.html">
scaleunits
</a>
<br><br><br>
<h2>Ploticus attribute types</h2>
The ploticus attribute types, listed from simplest to most complex, are:
<p>
<a name=n></a>
<p>
<b>n</b>
<dl>
<dt> <dd>
A single number.
May be floating point or integer.
<br>
Example: <tt>Offset: 3.2</tt>
<br><br>
</dl>
<p>
<a name=dfield></a>
<p>
<b>dfield</b> or <b>datafield</b>
<dl>
<dt> <dd>
A reference to a field in the plot data.<tt> </tt>
Plot data must already have been read in.<tt> </tt>
A <b>dfield</b> may be an integer (<b>1</b> or greater), e.g.<tt> </tt>
<tt>1</tt> would refer to the first data field.<tt> </tt>
<dt><dd><p>
If field names have been defined for the current data set,
<b>dfield</b> may also be one of these field names.<tt> </tt>
Field names may include any alphanumeric characters with a maximum length of 38,
and are case-insensitive. Field names may not contain embedded spaces or commas.
<br><br>
</dl>
<p>
<a name=plotvalue></a>
<p>
<b>plotvalue</b>
<dl>
<dt> <dd>
A plottable value conforming to the the scale type and ranges currently in effect
(numeric, date, time, category value, etc.)
for either X or Y axis.<tt> </tt>
May not contain embedded white space.<tt> </tt>
See also the above description of
<a href="#positionunits">
position units
</a>
<br><br>
</dl>
<p>
<a name=locvalue></a>
<p>
<b>locvalue</b>
<dl>
<dt> <dd>
A number or value that describes a location or length.<tt> </tt>
May be either absolute units or scaled units.<tt> </tt>
<dt> <dd>
If a suffix of <tt>(s)</tt> is attached to the end
of the number, the number is taken as being in scaled
space, and must be a plottable value (a number for numeric scaling,
a date where date scaling is being used, a category name with category scaling, etc.)
<dt> <dd>
If the number does not have a (s) suffix, it is interpreted as
being in absolute space.
<dt> <dd>
Special operators: <tt>min</tt> may be used to indicate the
minima of a defined plot area, and <tt>max</tt> to indicate the maxima.<tt> </tt>
<dt> <dd>
Offsets: A +/- offset may be given after the value
(no embedded spaces allowed). The offset is always an
absolute value. See the examples below.<tt> </tt>
<dt><dd><p>
Note: a locvalue cannot contain embedded whitespace. If your category name contains whitespace, use underscores
instead of whitespace in this situation.<tt> </tt>
<dt><dd><p>
Note: it is impossible to specify a negative offset when using date scaling
with a date notation that uses embedded dashes such as mm-dd-yyyy.<tt> </tt>
<dt> <dd>
See the above description of
<a href="#positionunits">
position units.<tt> </tt>
</a>
<dt> <dd>
Example: <tt>3.5</tt> = 3.5 absolute units (inches or centimeters).<tt> </tt>
<br>
Example: <tt>142(s)</tt> = 142 in scaled units (whatever was defined in the
most recent areadef).<tt> </tt>
<br>
Example: <tt>min</tt> = the plot area minima
<br>
Example: <tt>min-0.1</tt> = 0.1 inch below plot area minima
<br>
Example: <tt>23jan98(s)+0.5</tt> = 0.5 inch above the point where 23jan98 (in scaled units) would lie
<br>
Example: <tt>blue(s)</tt> = location of the category <tt>blue</tt>
<br><br>
</dl>
<p>
<a name=lenvalue></a>
<p>
<b>lenvalue</b>
<dl>
<dt> <dd>
Uses same notation as <b>locvalue</b> except that it
describes a distance rather than a location.
Distances may be given in absolute units or scaled units (the latter requires <tt>(s)</tt> be tacked onto the end).<tt> </tt>
For date and datetime this should be expressed in days; for time scaling use minutes).<tt> </tt>
See the above description of
<a href="#locvalue">
locvalue
</a>
<br><br>
</dl>
<p>
<a name=xy></a>
<p>
<b>x y</b>
<dl>
<dt> <dd>
A coordinate pair. Both <i>x</i> and <i>y</i> are <b>locvalues</b>.<tt> </tt>
See the above description of
<a href="#locvalue">
locvalue
</a>
<br>
Example: <tt>Location: 5.3 1</tt>
<br><br>
</dl>
<p>
<a name=printfspec></a>
<p>
<b>printf-spec</b>
<dl>
<dt> <dd>
A format specifier as used in the "C" programming language,
used to control the display of numeric values. Here are some
examples; for more information check any good C language reference.<tt> </tt>
Ploticus generally uses <tt>%g</tt> as the default spec, which
displays numbers using the shortest possible
representation, and generally switches to scientific notation on
very large numbers or very small numbers.<tt> </tt>
<pre>
printf-spec typical results
----------- -----------------------------------
%7.0f 500000 4500000
%5.2f 239.62 8491.50
$%.2f $82.54
$%6.2f $ 82.54
%3.0f%% 44%
</pre>
<br><br>
</dl>
<p>
<a name=string></a>
<p>
<b>string</b>
<dl>
<dt> <dd>
A character string value containing no embedded white space. All
white space before and after the string is discarded.
<br><br>
</dl>
<p>
<a name=text></a>
<p>
<b>text</b>
<dl>
<dt> <dd>
A character string value that may contain embedded white space.<tt> </tt>
The specification may not occupy more than one line, however embedded
newlines may be represented using backslash n (<tt>\n</tt>) .<tt> </tt>
<a href="fonts.html">
There is a notation for inline superscripts and subscripts
</a>
within text items.<tt> </tt>
<a href="fonts.html">
More on special characters, fonts, etc.<tt> </tt>
</a>
<br>
Example:
<tt>Yaxis.label: Number of Attempts\nBefore Success</tt>
<br><br>
</dl>
<p>
<a name=multiline></a>
<p>
<b>multilinetext</b>
<dl>
<dt> <dd>
Text that may be specified using one or more lines.<tt> </tt>
<b>The end of the multiline text is indicated by a blank line.</b>
If <b>#endproc</b> is encountered, this will also terminate the multiline item.<tt> </tt>
Blank lines that are to be part of the text may be escaped using a backslash (\).<tt> </tt>
Leading whitespace (normally stripped off) may be retained by using a backslash (\),
followed by the desired whitespace, followed by text (see 3rd example below).<tt> </tt>
<a href="fonts.html">
There is a notation for inline superscripts and subscripts
</a>
within multilinetext items.<tt> </tt>
<a href="fonts.html">
More on special characters, fonts, etc.<tt> </tt>
</a>
<br>
<pre>
Title: Comparison of Survey Techniques
By Region
\
Fall, 1997
</pre>
<tt></tt><dt> <dd>
It is also ok to leave the first line blank as in the following
example:
<pre>
Title:
Comparison of Survey Techniques
By Region
\
Fall, 1997
</pre>
<tt></tt><dt> <dd>
Here's an example where leading whitespace is preserved:
<pre>
text:
Data: 0.08 0.10 0.15 0.17 0.24 0.34 0.38 0.42 0.49 0.50 0.70
\ 0.94 0.95 1.26 1.37 1.55 1.75 3.20 6.98 50.57
</pre>
<br><br><br>
</dl>
<h2>More ploticus attribute types</h2>
<p>
For most of the following, click to see the details.<tt> </tt>
<p>
<b>pointsize</b> = An integer point size (usable range is 5 - 30 or so).<tt> </tt>
<p>
<a href="fonts.html">
font
</a>
= a font name
<p>
<a href="color.html">
color
</a>
= a color name
<p>
<a href="textdetails.html">
textdetails
</a>
= size, color, font of text
<p>
<a href="linedetails.html">
linedetails
</a>
= color, thickness, dash pattern of lines
<p>
<a href="symboldetails.html">
symboldetails
</a>
= shape, color, filltype of data points
<p>
<a href="select.html">
select expressions
</a>
= simple conditional expressions used to select data rows
<br>
<br>
</td></tr>
<td align=right>
<a href="../doc/welcome.html">
<img src="../doc/ploticus.gif" border=0></a><br><small>data display engine <br>
<a href="../doc/Copyright.html">Copyright Steve Grubb</a>
<br>
<br>
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</center>
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Ploticus is hosted at http://ploticus.sourceforge.net</td><td> </td><td>
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ploticus"><img src="http://sflogo.sourceforge.net/sflogo.php?group_id=38453&type=12"
width="120" height="30" border="0"
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