Re: st: RE: graph plot region size control

[Laura Gibbons <gibbonsl@u.washington.edu>]

Nick and Maartin rightfully took me to task for giving up without 
explaining my actual goal.  I apologize and appreciate your continued 
interest.

I am trying to make (a series of) graphs that are the same size, where the 
plot regions are also the same size.  Because the lengths of the labels 
vary, the plot regions are adjusted by Stata and I have no way to control 
them directly.  It's not wrong, but it makes quick comparisons more 
difficult.  Below is the type of graph I need to make.  The values for 
yline will vary between graphs.  Note that in this public example, price 
and weight measure different things, so it would seem silly to try to 
compare them, but in my real graphs, the variables are on the same scale, 
and I set the x axis to be the same range in all graphs.

---------
use http://www.stata-press.com/data/r10/auto

graph hbox price, over(foreign) yline(4000 8000) xsize(3.25) 
ysize(2.375)
graph export f1.wmf, replace

graph hbox weight, over(rep78)	yline(2000 3000) xsize(3.25) 
ysize(2.375)
graph export f2.wmf, replace
--------

Though the overall sizes are the same, the plot region in f2 is larger 
because the labels are shorter.

Since I last emailed, I have figured out how to improve things with the 
relabel option (below).  Probably if I used a fixed (monospace) font or 
added more spaces I could get pretty close.  But if there is a way to do 
this with by() or twoway, I'd love to learn it.  And I would like there to 
be an option to set the plot region size.

---------
graph hbox weight, over(rep78, 			///
relabel(1 "       1" 2 "       2" 3 "       3" 4 "       4" 5 "       5")) 
///
yline(2000 3000) xsize(3.25) ysize(2.375)
graph export f3.wmf, replace
---------

Thanks for any advice you may have, and for keeping me honest!
-Laura

On Wed, 7 Nov 2007, 
Maarten 
buis wrote:


> --- Laura Gibbons <gibbonsl@u.washington.edu> wrote:
> > Unfortunately my graphs are more complicated than the bar graphs in
> > the original post, so by() isn't an alternative.  But if I could
> > control the  size of the plot region, I'd be home.  It looks like I
> > need to settle for  uneven plot region sizes or use a different
> > graphing program, and neither  option is appealing.
> I can tell from experience that a surprising lot can be done with
> -by()-, even in very very complicated graphs (though you may need to
> use some tricks). So my gues is that you can do this with -by()- and
> thus save you a lot of trouble. If you don't tell us in what way your
> graphs are so complicated I cannot give you more advise than this very
> vague encouragement to have another good look at the by option.
>
> -- Maarten
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Maarten L. Buis
> Department of Social Research Methodology
> Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
> Boelelaan 1081
> 1081 HV Amsterdam
> The Netherlands
>
> visiting address:
> Buitenveldertselaan 3 (Metropolitan), room Z434
>
> +31 20 5986715
>
> http://home.fsw.vu.nl/m.buis/
> -----------------------------------------
>
>
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Laura E. Gibbons, PhD
General Internal Medicine, University of Washington
Box 359780
Harborview Medical Center
325 Ninth Avenue, Seattle, WA  98104

phone: 206-744-1842   fax: 206-744-9917
Office address: 401 Broadway, Suite 5122
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