Help Manual

Contents






Sigma Magic Help Version 15

Basic Charts

Overview

Basic Charts can be used to generate basic graphical analyses of data using the R software. These charts are provided separately under the Analytics menus, but some equivalent functionality is also available natively within Excel under the Graphs menu. The following charts can be generated using this tool: Area Plot, Density Plot, Dot Plot, Histogram, Bar Chart, Scatter Plot, Quantile Plot, Violin Plot, and Jitter Plot.

Inputs

To add this tool to your worksheet, click on Analytics and then select Basic Charts. Click on Analysis Setup to open the menu options for this tool. A sample screenshot of the menu is shown below: Basic Charts Inputs 1
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Plot Type: Select the chart that you want to plot for your data. The following charts are available in this tool.
ChartDescription
AreaAn area plot is kind of a line plot which represents the distribution of quantitative data.
DensityShows the distribution of a numeric variable.
Dot PlotThe dots are stacked with each dot representing one observation.
HistogramA histogram represents the frequencies of values of a variable bucketed into ranges.
Bar ChartA bar chart represents data in rectangular bars with the length of the bar proportional to the value of the variable.
Point PlotShows a scatter plot between two continuous variables X and Y.
Quantile PlotPlots the quantile-quantile plot (QQ) which shows the correlation of the data with a specific distribution.
Smooth PlotPlots the data after smoothing between two continuous variables X and Y.
Bar Chart IICreates a dot plot when there are two variables a discrete X and a continuous Y.
Box PlotDraws a box plot based on the quartiles between a discrete X and continuous Y.
Dot Plot IICreates a dot plot between a discrete X and a continuous Y.
Violin PlotViolin plots are similar to box plots except that they show the probability density of the data at different values.
Jitter PlotPlots the scatter plot between continuous X and continuous Y by adding a small jitter to the data points.
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Input Type: Specify the format for input data. The only option currently available is Raw Data.
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Analysis Data: You will need to enter the required data for analysis in this tab using the Select/view data buttons.
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X Variable: Specify which column from the data you have specified should be used for the X-axis. This is a required field. Note that if you have not specified any data for analysis, you will not be able to find any column names to select for this dropdown. Hence, specify your data columns first and then specify the X variable.
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Y Variable: Specify which column from the data you have specified should be used for the Y-axis. Note that this is an optional field for some of the charts as only one variable is required. For other charts like Scatter plots, it requires two variables, so you will have to specify both the X variable and the Y variable. Note that if you have not specified any data for analysis, you will not be able to find any column names to select for this dropdown. Hence, specify your data columns first and then specify the Y variable.
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Facet Type: Specify if you want to plot the data on multiple charts. If so, how you would like to break-up into multiple charts. By default, all charts will have the same scale. If you want each chart to have a different scale, use the option scales='free'. The following options are available:
ChartDescription
NoneAll the plots will be done on a single chart.
ColumnShow the split in the vertical direction.
RowShow the split in the horizontal direction.
BothShow the split in a matrix (grid) format.
WrapPlace the facets side by side using the wrap() function.
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Facet Variable: Specify which column variable should be used for faceting the charts. Note that if you have not specified any data for analysis, you will not be able to find any column names to select for this dropdown. Hence, specify your data columns first and then specify the facet variable.
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Theme: Specify the theme you would like to use for charting.
ThemeDescription
NoneDo not apply a theme to this chart.
BWWhite background with grid lines.
GrayGrey background (default theme).
ClassicClassic theme.
MinimalMinimalistic theme.
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Legend: Specify the location of the legend for the chart.
LocationDescription
NoneDo not place any legends on the chart.
LeftPlace the legend on the left of the chart.
RightPlace the legend on the right of the chart.
TopPlace the legend at the top of the chart.
BottomPlace the legend at the bottom of the chart.
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Animation Type: Specify any animation you want to use for your chart.
TypeDescription
NoneDo not animate the chart.
StatesAnimate using a discrete state variable.
TimeAnimate using the continuous state variable.
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Animation Variable: Specify which variable to use for the animation. Note that if you have not specified any data for analysis, you will not be able to find any column names to select for this dropdown. Hence, specify your data columns first and then specify the animation variable.
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Animation Options: Specify any options that you would like to use for the animation. Example: enter_face()
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Help Button: Click on the Help Button to view the help documentation for this tool.
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Cancel Button: Click on the Cancel Button to discard your changes and exit this menu.
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OK Button: Click on the OK Button to save your changes and try to execute the program. Note that you will need to specify the required data in order to complete the analysis and generate outputs. If there are any missing data, then the software will remind you to specify the data and click on Compute Outputs to generate analysis results.

Data

If you click on the Data button, you will see the following dialog box. Here you can specify the data required for this analysis. Data
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Search Data: The available data displays all the columns of data that are available for analysis. You can use the search bar to filter this list and to speed up finding the right data to use for analysis. Enter a few characters in the search field and the software will filter and display the filtered data in the Available Data box.
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Available Data: The available data box contains the list of data available for analysis. If your workbook does not have any data in tabular format, this box will display "No Data Found". The information displayed in this box includes the row number, whether the data is Numeric (N) or Text (T), and the name of the column variable. Note that the software displays data from all the tables in the current workbook. Even though data within the same table have unique column names, columns across different tables can have similar names. Hence, it is important that you not only specify the column name but also the table name.
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Add or View Data: Click on this button either to add more data into your workbook for analysis or to view more details about the data listed in the available data box. When you click on this button, it opens up the Data Editor dialog box where you can import more data into your workbook, or you can switch from the list view to a table view to see the individual data values for each column.
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Required Data: The code for the required data specifies what data can be specified for that box. An example code is N: 2-4. If the code starts with an N, then you will need to select only numeric columns. If the code starts with a T, then you can select both numeric and text columns. The numbers to the right of the colon specify the min-max values. For example, if the min-max values are 2-4, then you need to select a minimum of 2 columns of data and a maximum of 4 columns of data in this box. If the minimum value is 0, then no data is required to be specified for this box.
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Select Button: Click on this button to select the data for analysis. Any data you select for the analysis is moved to the right. To select a column, click on the columns in the Available Databox to highlight them and then click on the Select Button. A second method to select the data is to double click on the columns in the list of Available Data. Finally, you can also drag and drop the columns you are interested in by holding down the select columns using your left mouse key and dragging and dropping them in one of the boxes on the right.
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Selected Data: If the right amount of data columns has been specified, the list box header will be displayed in the black color. If sufficient data has not been specified, then the list box header will be displayed in the red color. Note that you can double-click on any of the columns in this box to remove them from the box.
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View Selection: Click on this button to view the data you have specified for this analysis. The data can be viewed either in the tablular format or you can view a graphical summary of the data selected.

Charts

If you click on the Charts button, you will see the following dialog box. Here you can specify some additional options for charts. Basic Charts Inputs 2
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X Label: Specify the text for the X label.
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Y Label: Specify the text for the Y Label.
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Title: Specify the text for the title of the chart.
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Subtitle: Specify the text for the subtitle of the chart.
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Geoms Options: Specify any options for the Geoms object.

Program

If you click on the Program button, the software will display the program code - an example screenshot is shown in the figure below. Pre-Process Inputs 3
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R Program: You can view the R program that will be executed here. This program is usually automatically generated from the options you have specified in the setup earlier. This is the program that will be executed by the R program to generate analysis outputs. If you like, you can edit this program.
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Auto Mode: If the radio button is selected as Auto, then the software will automatically update this code based on any changes you make in the input dialog box. We recommend that you use this option to generate the R program so that all your input settings are used to generate analysis results.
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Manual Mode: If you use the Manual option, then you will be allowed to edit the R program before the program is executed. Make sure that you specify a syntactically correct program; otherwise, the R program may report errors.

Verify

If you click on the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you have entered. A sample screenshot of the data is shown in this figure. Pre-Process Inputs 4
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Verify Checks: The objective of this analysis as well as any checks that are performed are listed in this dialog box. For example, the software may check if you have correctly specified the input options and if you have specified the data correctly for analysis.
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Check Status: The results of the analysis checks are listed here. If the checks are passed, then they are shown as a green-colored checkmark. If the verification checks fail, then they are shown as a red-colored cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in the orange color exclamation mark and finally, any checks that are required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.

Outputs

Click on Compute Outputs to generate the outputs from this analysis. A sample screenshot of the worksheet is shown below. The notes section shows a summary of the inputs used for this analysis, and the graph section shows you the relevant plots you have requested. Basic Charts Example

Notes

Here are a few notes regarding this analysis:
  • If you want to review the R program that was used to generate this output, go to the %TMP%/Sigma Magic/ folder and look for the file smRScript.R after you execute the program. Note that this folder also contains other files such as error or warning output, text, and graphical output from running R. However, these files are stored in a temporary location and are not persistent between sessions.

Examples

Following examples can be found in the Examples folder within the software.
  • Generate some typical charts using the Basic Charts tool for the data given in the example data file (Basic Charts 1.xlsm).

References

For more information on this topic, please refer to the following articles. Do note that if any external links are mentioned below, they are for reference purposes only.