CHARACTER AUTOMATIC

CHARACTER AUTOMATIC

Plot Control Command

Specifies a variable that is to be used as the arguments to the CHARACTER command.

This command allows a variable to be used as the arguments to the CHARACTERS command. It is typically used with the CHARACTER OFFSET or CHARACTER ANGLE command to label plot points. One application is labeling bar charts with the data value. However, it can be used in other ways.

This command is restricted to numeric values (it does not allow you to specify alphabetic strings). Also, the CHARACTER command is limited to 4 characters, which means that only the first 4 significant digits of the numeric values are printed (it is most typically used with integer values).

The limit for the number of characters in the CHARACTER command was increased from 4 to 16 in the June, 2010 version of Dataplot.

CHARACTER AUTOMATIC <variable> <SUBSET/EXCEPT/FOR qualification>
where the first element of <variable> specifies the character for trace 1, the second element specifies the character for trace 2, and so on up to 100 traces;
and where the <SUBSET/EXCEPT/FOR qualification> is optional.

CHARACTER AUTOMATIC DISTINCT <variable> <SUBSET/EXCEPT/FOR qualification>
where the first distinct element of <variable> specifies the character for trace 1, the second distinct element specifies the character for trace 2, and so on up to 100 traces;
and where the <SUBSET/EXCEPT/FOR qualification> is optional.

The distinction with this syntax is that only the distinct elements of are used.

CHARACTER AUTOMATIC SIGN <variable> <SUBSET/EXCEPT/FOR qualification>
where the first element of <variable> specifies the character for trace 1, the second element specifies the character for trace 2, and so on up to 100 traces;
and where the <SUBSET/EXCEPT/FOR qualification> is optional.

The distinction with this syntax is that the sign of the elements of <variable> are determined. Positive values of <variable> result in a character of "+", negative values of <variable> result in a character of "-", and zero values of <variable> result in a character of "0".

This syntax was implemented 2001/1.

CHARACTER AUTOMATIC X1
CHARACTER AUTOMATIC DISTINCT Y1
CHARACTER AUTOMATIC SIGN Y1

The BAR, SPIKE, CHARACTER, and LINE switch all work independently of each other. That is, a plot point can be a line, a character, a spike or a bar or any combination of the above.

Although the CHARACTER command can be used to label plot points, be aware that it has some serious limitations in this regard. The most important limitation is that character labels are limited to 4 characters. If you need more than 4 characters, you have to use the TEXT or LEGEND command. However, this is more difficult since the coordinates are given in Dataplot 0 to 100 screen units rather than the data units. The MOVEDATA command can be used with the TEXT command (MOVEDATA is an alternate version of MOVE that uses the coordinates from the most recent plot).

The number of characters allowed was increased from 4 to 16 in the June, 2010 version of Dataplot.

The CHARACTER AUTOMATIC command with no arguments sets all characters to X.

In some cases, you may not want to start with the first CHARACTER setting. To specify an offset for the CHARACTER AUTOMATIC command, enter the command
SET CHARACTER AUTOMATIC OFFSET <value>

where <value> is a non-negative integer (the default is 0).

For example,

CHARACTER AUTOMATIC Y
SET CHARACTER AUTOMATIC OFFSET 3


means that Y(1) will be used for the fourth setting of the CHARACTER command, Y(2) will be used for the fifth setting of the character command, and so on.

This can be useful if your plot needs to reserve the first few character settings for other plot elements.

By default, when you enter the CHARACTER AUTOMATIC command, the character settings are extracted immediately from the specified variable. However, there may be situations where you want to defer the extraction until the plot is generated. To specify that the character settings will be extracted when the plot is generated, enter the command
SET CHARACTER AUTOMATIC DYNAMIC ON

To reset the default that the character settings will be extracted when the CHARACTER AUTOMATIC command is entered, use the command

SET CHARACTER AUTOMATIC DYNAMIC OFF

No automatic plot characters are used.

None

PLOT	=	Generates a data or function plot.
CHARACTER ANGLE	=	Sets the angle for plotting characters with the text command.
CHARACTERS	=	Sets the types for plot characters.
CHARACTER CASE	=	Sets the cases for plot characters.
CHARACTERS COLORS	=	Sets the colors for plot characters.
CHARACTER FILL	=	Sets the fill switches for plot characters.
CHARACTER FONT	=	Sets the fonts for plot characters.
CHARACTER HW	=	Sets the heights and widths for plot characters.
CHARACTER JUSTIFICATION	=	Sets the justifications for plot characters.
CHARACTER OFFSET	=	Sets the offsets for plot characters.
CHARACTERS SIZES	=	Sets the sizes for plot characters.
CHARACTER THICKNESS	=	Sets the thicknesses for plot characters.
CHARACTER WIDTH	=	Sets the widths for plot characters.
LINES	=	Sets the types for plot lines.
SPIKE	=	Sets the on/off switches for plot spikes.
BAR	=	Sets the on/off switches for plot bars.

Presentation Graphics

Pre-1987
2010/06: Support for 16 characters in CHARACTER settings
2011/12: SET CHARACTER AUTOMATIC OFFSET added
2012/07: SET CHARACTER AUTOMATIC DYNAMIC added

LEGEND 1 PRESENTATION GRAPHICS
LEGEND 2 3-D BAR HISTOGRAM
.
LET Y = DATA 392 341 307 203 115 59 38 32 29 28
.
LET N = NUMBER Y
LET X = SEQUENCE 1 1 N
.
LINES BLANK ALL
BAR ON ALL
BAR WIDTH .5 ALL
BAR DIMENSION 3 ALL
BAR FILL ONTS ALL
CHARACTER OFFSET  0 4 ALL
CHARACTER AUTOMATIC Y
YMAX 600
XMAX 12
TITLE DEMONSTRATE CHARACTER AUTOMATIC
PLOT Y X X