Re: st: copy graph legend

[Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com>]

In effect this advice is to use Stata's class system, which as far as
graphs are concerned isn't fully documented.

If James's suggestion works, then fine. But otherwise unless Ric is
familiar with class or object ideas in programming (and if he were I
guess he wouldn't be asking this question) the easiest option will
still be to study the documentation of -legend()-. There is no need to
learn anything: you will know what you changed and what you didn't.

Nick

On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 11:43 PM, Fiedler, James (JSC-SK)[UNIVERSITIES
SPACE RESEARCH ASSOC-DIV OF SPACE  LIFE SCIENCES]
<james.fiedler-1@nasa.gov> wrote:
> It also sounds like the changes you already made were not recorded, and, if at all possible, you'd like to avoid repeating those edits. Here's something that's working for me, but it doesn't work in all cases, and might be destructive when it doesn't work.
>
> *** Do the following only if you're prepared to destroy your current graphs. Save a copy before proceeding.***
>
> First, is your graph named? If so, take "graph1" to be that name, otherwise replace "graph1" with "Graph". I'm going to assume the other graphs have not yet been made. When you make them, give them a name, and put that name in place of "graph2" below.
>
> So you'll do
>  twoway  etc etc , name(graph2)
>
> Or whatever, then
>  .graph2.legend = .graph1.legend
>  graph draw graph2
>
>
> In the second-to-last line, you need to type the periods before "graph1" and "graph2".
>
> I'm curious to know if that works. I made one kind of edit with the graph editor and it worked, and when I made another kind of edit it destroyed one of the graphs.
>
> Here's an example where it works for me (Stata 12 on Windows XP):
>
>    scatter mpg turn weight, name(graph1)
>
> *** use graph editor to erase "(mpg)" and "(ft.)", then exit editing mode ***
>
>    scatter length trunk price, name(graph2)
>    .graph2.legend = .graph1.legend
>    graph draw graph2
>
> James
>
> ________________________________________
> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Nick Cox [njcoxstata@gmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 4:01 PM
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject: Re: st: copy graph legend
>
> I think I was reading this the wrong way. Ric is referring to changes
> made in the Graph Editor. The Graph Recorder is the way to record what
> it does.
>
> Nick
>
> On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 9:39 PM, Nick Cox <njcoxstata@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Use a local macro for your legend definition.
>>
>> Here's a dopey example:
>>
>> sysuse auto, clear
>>
>> local mylegend "legend(pos(3) col(1))"
>> local myytitle "Turn circle (ft) and trunk space (cu. ft)"
>>
>> forval i = 1/5 {
>>        scatter turn trunk weight if rep78==`i', ///
>>        ytitle(`myytitle') subtitle(Repair record `i') `mylegend'
>>        more
>> }
>>
>>
>> On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 9:28 PM, Eric M. Uslaner <euslaner@umd.edu> wrote:
>>
>>  I am generating a set of similar graphs and I don't like the legend
>> Stata automatically produces.  I spent considerable time formatting
>> the legend in the first graph.  If at all possible, I would like to
>> copy the legend and replace legends in graphs 2-4 with the legend I
>> created for graph 1.  I searched for help and could not find a
>> solution.  If I could recover the commands for the edited legend in
>> graph 1, I could redo the other graphs with the revised legend in the
>> command line since the rest of the graph is barely edited from what
>> Stata generates.  I have read the manual on legends--and larning all
>> of the comands would take a lot more time than editing each one.  I am
>> hoping (though not so optimistically) for a simple solution.

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