## Attribute types - reference

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Manual page for Attribute_types_-_reference(PL)

## DESCRIPTION

Many of the various attributes are of standard types. These types are described here, for reference.``

## POSITION UNITS

Absolute space is measured in inches (or centimeters if set in the config file). Origin is always the lower-left corner of the page/drawing area.``

Scaled space is measured in whatever units have been defined with a proc areadef.``

For more information, see scaleunits

## CHARACTERS AND TEXT

Any available PostScript font may used when rendering in PostScript; otherwise a single standard font is used. See textdetails for more information about rendering text.``

Text specifications may include embedded special characters, which will be rendered in PostScript mode only.`` The notation for these is borrowed from unix troff (e.g. `\(bu` for bullet). See specialchars

## ATTRIBUTE TYPES

The attribute types, listed from simplest to most complex, are:

n

  A single number. May be floating point or integer.
  Example: `Offset: 3.2`

dfield

  A reference to a field in the plot data.`` Plot data must have already been read using proc getdata.`` A dfield may be an integer (1 or greater), e.g.`` `1` would refer to the first data field.`` If field names have been defined in proc getdata, dfield may also be one of the defined names.``

plotvalue

  A plottable value given the scaling and ranges that have been set up with the most recent proc areadef.`` See the above description of position units

locvalue

  A number or value that describes a location or length.`` May be either absolute units or scaled units.``

  If a suffix of `(s)` is attached to the end of the number, the number is taken as being in scaled space, and must be a plottable value (a number for numeric scaling, a date where date scaling is being used, etc.)

  If the number does not have a (s) suffix, it is interpreted as being in absolute space.

  Special operators: `min` may be used to indicate the minima of a defined plot area, and `max` to indicate the maxima.``

  Offsets: A +/- offset may be given after the value (no embedded spaces allowed). The offset is always an absolute value. Note that it is impossible to specify a negative offset when using date scaling with a date notation that uses embedded dashes such as mm-dd-yyyy.`` See the examples below.``

  See the above description of position units

  Example: `3.5` = 3.5 absolute units (inches or centimeters).``
  Example: `142(s)` = 142 in scaled units (whatever was defined in the most recent areadef).``
  Example: `min` = the plot area minima
  Example: `min-0.1` = 0.1 inch below plot area minima
  Example: `23jan98(s)+0.5` = 0.5 inch above the point where 23jan98 (in scaled units) would lie

lenvalue

  Uses same notation as locvalue except that it describes a distance rather than a location. Distances may be given in absolute units or scaled "basic" units (e.g. for date and datetime this should be a value in days; for time scaling this should be a value in minutes).`` See the above description of locvalue

x y

  A coordinate pair. Both x and y are locvalues.`` See the above description of locvalue
  Example: `Location: 5.3 1`

printf-spec

  A format specifier as used in the "C" programming language, used to specify decimal number format. For example, a printf-spec of `%3.0f` rounds to produce numbers like this: 7, 55, 240, 8492.`` A printf-spec of `%5.2` rounds to produce numbers like this: 7.00 55.05 239.62 8491.50.

  Another example: `$%.2f` would yield `$82.54`
  Another example: `$%6.2f` would yield `$ 82.54`
  Another example: `%3.0f%%` would yield `44%`
  `%g` may be used to give the shortest possible representation.``

string

  A character string value containing no embedded white space. All white space before and after the string is discarded.

text

  A character string value that may contain embedded white space.`` The specification may not occupy more than one line, however embedded newlines (specified as `\n`) may be used to indicate that output should have multiple lines.``
  Example: `Yaxis.label: Number of Attempts\nBefore Success`

multilinetext

  Text that may be specified using one or more lines.`` The last line of the text is indicated by a blank (zero-length) line.`` (A common error is to forget to leave a blank line and hence get incorrect results.) The maximum number of lines / characters in a multilinetext item varies, but is generally high enough to be rarely encountered.`` Blank lines that are to be part of the text may be escaped using a backslash (\), or by putting some blanks into the line.``

      Title: Comparison of Survey Techniques
           By Region
           \
           Fall, 1997

  ``

  It is also ok to leave the first line blank as in the following example:

      Title:
      Comparison of Survey Techniques
      By Region
      \
      Fall, 1997

  ``

## RELATED TO GRAPHICS RENDERING

pointsize

  An integer point size (usable range is 5 - 30 or so).``

font

  A postscript font name.``

color see color

textdetails see textdetails

linedetails see linedetails

symboldetails see symboldetails

conditional expression see condex
data display engine
Copyright Steve Grubb

Markup created by unroff 1.0, `` `` June 18, 2001.