Can you easily tell the day of the week on which the most sales for a store item occurred, and how its sales varied over time for each day? The cycle plot (also known as month plot or seasonal subseries plot) is a popular tool for answering these types of questions. It is an effective graph for analyzing seasonal patterns and long-term trends. Initially developed by Cleveland, et al. in the 1970s, it has gained great interest in the data visualization community lately. Although the Graph Template Language (GTL) does not provide a statement for this plot, you can easily produce one in SAS® with a combination of the DATA step, the SQL and SUMMARY procedures, and ODS Graphics. This paper uses examples to show you ways to generate cycle plots. The same techniques can also be used to produce similar visuals for other types of data.
See README.txt for detailed instructions.
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