.ig >>
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<title>ploticus: attribute types</title>
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<table cellpadding=2 bgcolor=FFFFFF width=550><tr>
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  <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>
.>>

.TH Attribute_types PL "11-MAR-2009   PL ploticus.sourceforge.net"


.ig >>
<a name=positionunits></a>
<a name=punits></a>
.>>
.ig >>
<br><br><br>
.>>
.SH Ploticus positioning units
\fBAbsolute\fR space is measured in inches by default.
It can be centimeters if set using the 
.ig >>
<a href="pl.1.html#cm">
.>>
\0-cm command line option
.ig >>
</a>
.>>
or in your
.ig >>
<a href="config">
.>>
\0config file.
.ig >>
</a>
.>>

Origin (0,0) is always the \fBlower-left\fR corner of the page or drawing area.
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.

.LP
\fBScaled\fR space is measured in whatever data units are currently in effect
(numeric, date, time, categories, etc.).
.LP
For more information, see
.ig >>
<a href="scaleunits.html">
.>>
\0scaleunits
.ig >>
</a>
.>>

.ig >>
<br><br><br>
.>>

.SH Ploticus attribute types
The ploticus attribute types, listed from simplest to most complex, are:


.LP
.ig >>
<a name=n></a>
.>>
.LP
\fBn\fR
.IP \0
A single number.  
May be floating point or integer.  
.br
Example: \fCOffset: 3.2\fR

.ig >>
<br><br>
.>>

.LP
.ig >>
<a name=dfield></a>
.>>
.LP
\fBdfield\fR or \fBdatafield\fR
.IP \0
A reference to a field in the plot data.
Plot data must already have been read in.
A \fBdfield\fR may be an integer (\fB1\fR or greater), e.g.
\fC1\fR would refer to the first data field.
.IP
If field names have been defined for the current data set, 
\fBdfield\fR may also be one of these field names.
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. 

.ig >>
<br><br>
.>>

.LP
.ig >>
<a name=plotvalue></a>
.>>
.LP
\fBplotvalue\fR
.IP \0
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.
May not contain embedded white space.
See also the above description of 
.ig >>
<a href="#positionunits">
.>>
\0position units
.ig >>
</a>
.>>

.ig >>
<br><br>
.>>

.LP
.ig >>
<a name=locvalue></a>
.>>
.LP
\fBlocvalue\fR
.IP \0
A number or value that describes a location or length.
May be either absolute units or scaled units.
.IP \0
If a suffix of \fC(s)\fR 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.)
.IP \0
If the number does not have a (s) suffix, it is interpreted as 
being in absolute space.  
.IP \0
Special operators: \fCmin\fR may be used to indicate the
minima of a defined plot area, and \fCmax\fR to indicate the maxima.
.IP \0
Offsets: A +/- offset may be given after the value
(no embedded spaces allowed).  The offset is always an
absolute value.  See the examples below.
.IP
Note: a locvalue cannot contain embedded whitespace.  If your category name contains whitespace, use underscores 
instead of whitespace in this situation.
.IP
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.
.IP \0
See the above description of 
.ig >>
<a href="#positionunits">
.>>
\0position units.
.ig >>
</a>
.>>
.IP \0
Example: \fC3.5\fR = 3.5 absolute units (inches or centimeters).
.br
Example: \fC142(s)\fR = 142 in scaled units (whatever was defined in the
most recent areadef).
.br
Example: \fCmin\fR = the plot area minima
.br
Example: \fCmin-0.1\fR = 0.1 inch below plot area minima
.br
Example: \fC23jan98(s)+0.5\fR = 0.5 inch above the point where 23jan98 (in scaled units) would lie
.br
Example: \fCblue(s)\fR = location of the category \fCblue\fR

.ig >>
<br><br>
.>>

.LP
.ig >>
<a name=lenvalue></a>
.>>
.LP
\fBlenvalue\fR
.IP \0
Uses same notation as \fBlocvalue\fR except that it 
describes a distance rather than a location.  
Distances may be given in absolute units or scaled units (the latter requires \fC(s)\fR be tacked onto the end).
For date and datetime this should be expressed in days; for time scaling use minutes).
See the above description of 
.ig >>
<a href="#locvalue">
.>>
\0locvalue
.ig >>
</a>
.>>

.ig >>
<br><br>
.>>

.LP
.ig >>
<a name=xy></a>
.>>
.LP
\fBx y\fR
.IP \0
A coordinate pair.  Both \fIx\fR and \fIy\fR are \fBlocvalues\fR.
See the above description of 
.ig >>
<a href="#locvalue">
.>>
\0locvalue
.ig >>
</a>
.>>
.br
Example: \fCLocation: 5.3 1\fR

.ig >>
<br><br>
.>>


.LP
.ig >>
<a name=printfspec></a>
.>>
.LP
\fBprintf-spec\fR
.IP \0
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.
Ploticus generally uses \fC%g\fR 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.
.nf
printf-spec		typical results
-----------		-----------------------------------
%7.0f			500000   4500000
%5.2f			239.62   8491.50
$%.2f			$82.54
$%6.2f			$ 82.54
%3.0f%%			44%
.fi

.ig >>
<br><br>
.>>

.LP
.ig >>
<a name=string></a>
.>>
.LP
\fBstring\fR
.IP \0
A character string value containing no embedded white space.  All
white space before and after the string is discarded.  

.ig >>
<br><br>
.>>

.LP
.ig >>
<a name=text></a>
.>>
.LP
\fBtext\fR
.IP \0
A character string value that may contain embedded white space.
The specification may not occupy more than one line, however embedded 
newlines may be represented using backslash n (\fC\\n\fR) .
.ig >>
<a href="fonts.html">
.>>
\0There is a notation for inline superscripts and subscripts
.ig >>
</a>
.>>
within text items.
.ig >>
<a href="fonts.html">
.>>
\0More on special characters, fonts, etc.
.ig >>
</a>
.>>

.br
Example:
\fCYaxis.label: Number of Attempts\\nBefore Success\fR

.ig >>
<br><br>
.>>

.LP
.ig >>
<a name=multiline></a>
.>>
.LP
\fBmultilinetext\fR
.IP \0
Text that may be specified using one or more lines.
\fBThe end of the multiline text is indicated by a blank line.\fR
If \fB#endproc\fR is encountered, this will also terminate the multiline item.
Blank lines that are to be part of the text may be escaped using a backslash (\\).
Leading whitespace (normally stripped off) may be retained by using a backslash (\\),
followed by the desired whitespace, followed by text (see 3rd example below).
.ig >>
<a href="fonts.html">
.>>
\0There is a notation for inline superscripts and subscripts
.ig >>
</a>
.>>
within multilinetext items.
.ig >>
<a href="fonts.html">
.>>
\0More on special characters, fonts, etc.
.ig >>
</a>
.>>
.br
.nf
.ft C
Title: Comparison of Survey Techniques 
     By Region 
     \\
     Fall, 1997
.fi
.ft R
.IP \0
It is also ok to leave the first line blank as in the following 
example:
.nf
.ft C
Title: 
Comparison of Survey Techniques 
By Region 
\\
Fall, 1997
.fi
.ft R
.IP \0
Here's an example where leading whitespace is preserved:
.nf
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

.fi


.ig >>
<br><br><br>
.>>

.SH More ploticus attribute types
.LP
For most of the following, click to see the details.
.LP
\fBpointsize\fR =  An integer point size (usable range is 5 - 30 or so).

.LP
.ig >>
<a href="fonts.html">
.>>
\0font
.ig >>
</a>
.>>
 = a font name 

.LP
.ig >>
<a href="color.html">
.>>
\0color
.ig >>
</a>
.>>
 = a color name

.LP
.ig >>
<a href="textdetails.html">
.>>
\0textdetails
.ig >>
</a>
.>>
 = size, color, font of text

.LP
.ig >>
<a href="linedetails.html">
.>>
\0linedetails
.ig >>
</a>
.>>
 = color, thickness, dash pattern of lines

.LP
.ig >>
<a href="symboldetails.html">
.>>
\0symboldetails
.ig >>
</a>
.>>
 = shape, color, filltype of data points

.LP
.ig >>
<a href="select.html">
.>>
\0select expressions
.ig >>
</a>
.>>
 = simple conditional expressions used to select data rows

.ig >>
<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 &nbsp; <br>
<a href="../doc/Copyright.html">Copyright Steve Grubb</a>
<br>
<br>
<center>
<img src="../gallery/all.gif"> 
</center>
</td></tr>
</table>
<br>
<center>
<table><tr><td>
Ploticus is hosted at http://ploticus.sourceforge.net</td><td> &nbsp; </td><td>
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width="120" height="30" border="0" 
alt="Get ploticus data display engine at SourceForge.net. Fast, secure and Free Open Source software downloads" /></a>
</td></tr></table>


</center>
.>>
