Help Manual

Contents






Sigma Magic Help Version 18

Basic Charts

Overview

Basic Charts can generate fundamental graphical data analyses 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. This tool can generate the following charts: 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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Input Type: Specify the format for input data. The following options are available.
TypeDescription
Single VariableYou only have one column of data you want to plot. Examples are area charts, bar charts, density charts, dot plots, histograms, etc.
Two VariablesYou have two columns of data you want to plot. Examples are box plot, jitter plot, point plot, violin plot, etc.
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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. Note that the charts in the dropdown box may change depending on the specified input type.
ChartDescription
AreaAn area plot is a kind of line plot that 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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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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Facet Type: Specify if you want to plot the data on multiple charts. If so, how would you 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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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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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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Geom Options: Specify any options that you would like to use for the Geom setting.
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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. You must specify the required data to complete the analysis and generate outputs. If there are any missing data, the software will remind you to specify the data and click on Compute Outputs to generate analysis results.

Data

You will see the following dialog box if you click the Data button. 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 speed up finding the right data for analysis. Enter a few characters in the search field, and the software will filter and display the filtered data that matches the search criteria 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 has no 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 crucial 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 to add more data to 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 the Data Editor dialog box, where you can import more data into your workbook. You can also 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, you must select only numeric columns. If the code begins with a T, you can select 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, you must select a minimum of 2 columns of data and a maximum of 4 columns 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 choose 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 choose the data is to double-click on the columns in the list of Available Data. Finally, you can 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: The list box header will be displayed in black if the right number of data columns is specified. If sufficient data has not been specified, then the list box header will be displayed in red color. Note that you can double-click on any of the columns in this box to remove them from the box.
6a
Analysis Variable: Specify which column from the specified data should be used for the X-axis. This is an optional field for some charts, as only one variable is required. Other charts, like scatter plots, require two variables, so you must specify both the X and Y variables. Note that if you have not specified any data for analysis, you cannot find any column names to select for this dropdown. Hence, specify your data columns first and then specify the Y variable.
6b
Analysis Variable (2): Specify which column from the specified data should be used for the Y-axis. This is an optional field for some charts, as only one variable is required. Other charts, like scatter plots, require two variables, so you must specify both the X and Y variables. Note that if you have not specified any data for analysis, you cannot find any column names to select for this dropdown. Hence, specify your data columns first and then specify the Y variable.
6c
By Variable: Specify which column variable should be used to face the charts. Note that if you have not specified any data for analysis, you cannot find any column names to select for this dropdown. Hence, specify your data columns first and then specify the facet variable.
6d
Animation Variable: Specify which variable to use for the animation. Leaving this field blank implies you don't want to perform any animations for this study.
7
View Selection: Click on this button to view the data specified for this analysis. The data can be viewed in a tabular format or a graphical summary of the selected data.

Charts

You will see the following dialog box if you click the Charts button. Here, you can specify some additional options for charts. Basic Charts Inputs 2
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Title: Specify the text for the title of the chart.
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Subtitle: Specify the text for the chart subtitle.
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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.

Verify

If you click the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you entered. A sample screenshot of the data is shown in this figure. Pre-Process Inputs 4
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Verify Checks: For each main tab of the analysis setup, one or more checks are performed to see if the inputs have been specified correctly. If all the checks are successful, a green checkmark will be placed at the top. You will only be able to compute the analysis results if all checks have been passed; otherwise, you will need to fix the input errors before you can generate analysis results.
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Check Status: The results of the analysis checks are listed here. If the checks are passed, they are shown as a green checkmark. If the verification checks fail, they are shown as a red cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in the orange exclamation mark. 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 summarizes the inputs used for this analysis, and the graph section shows you the relevant plots you requested. Basic Charts Example

Notes

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

Examples

The following examples are in the Examples folder.
  • Generate some typical charts using the Basic Charts tool for the data given in the example data file (Basic Charts 1.xlsx).

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.


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