Ubuntu Manpage: stilts-plothist - Old-style Histogram

NAME

       stilts-plothist - Old-style Histogram

SYNOPSIS

       stilts plothist [xpix=<int-value>] [ypix=<int-value>] [font=dialog|serif|...] [fontsize=<int-value>]
                       [fontstyle=plain|bold|italic|bold-italic] [legend=true|false] [title=<value>]
                       [omode=swing|out|cgi|discard|auto] [out=<out-file>] [ofmt=png|png-
                       transp|gif|jpeg|pdf|eps|eps-gzip] [inN=<table>] [ifmtN=<in-format>] [istreamN=true|false]
                       [cmdN=<cmds>] [xdataN=<expr>] [xlo=<float-value>] [xhi=<float-value>] [xlog=true|false]
                       [xflip=true|false] [xlabel=<value>] [subsetNS=<expr>] [nameNS=<value>]
                       [colourNS=<rrggbb>|red|blue|...] [barstyleNS=fill|open|...] [linewidthNS=<int-value>]
                       [dashNS=dot|dash|...|<a,b,...>] [grid=true|false] [antialias=true|false]
                       [sequence=<suffix>,<suffix>,...] [ylo=<float-value>] [yhi=<float-value>]
                       [ylog=true|false] [ylabel=<value>] [weightN=<value>] [binwidth=<float-value>]
                       [norm=true|false] [cumulative=true|false] [binbase=<float-value>]

DESCRIPTION

       This  section describes a deprecated command. It still works, but you are advised to use the more capable
       plot2plane instead.

       plothist performs histogram plots, sending the output to a graphical display or writing it to a  file  in
       some  vector  or  bitmapped  graphics format. You need to supply it with values for one or more sets of X
       values, in terms of table columns, and it will bin the data and draw bars appropriately. Plot bounds, bin
       widths  etc  may  be  supplied expliicitly, but will be calculated from the data and set from defaults as
       appropriate otherwise. There are many options available to configure the detailed appearance of the plot,
       but  in  its simplest form invocation is quite straightforward. See SUN/256 for more discussion on use of
       the plotting commands.

OPTIONS

xpix=<int-value>
The width of the output graphic in pixels.

ypix=<int-value>
The height of the output graphic in pixels.

font=dialog|serif|...
Determines the font that will be used for textual annotation of the plot, including axes etc. At
least the following fonts will be available:

* serif

* sansserif

* monospaced

* dialog

* dialoginput
as well as a range of system-dependent fonts, possibly including

* dejavu_sans

* dejavu_sans_mono

* dejavu_serif

fontsize=<int-value>
Sets the font size used for plot annotations.

fontstyle=plain|bold|italic|bold-italic
Gives a style in which the font is to be applied for plot annotations. Options are plain, bold,
italic and bold-italic.

legend=true|false
Determines whether a legend showing which plotting style is used for each data set. Defaults to
true if there is more than one set, false otherwise.

title=<value>
A one-line title to display at the top of the plot.

omode=swing|out|cgi|discard|auto
Determines how the drawn plot will be output, see SUN/256.

* swing: Plot will be displayed in a window on the screen. This plot is "live"; it can be
resized and (except for old-style plots) navigated around with mouse actions in the same way
as plots in TOPCAT.

* out: Plot will be written to a file given by out using the graphics format given by ofmt.

* cgi: Plot will be written in a way suitable for CGI use direct from a web server. The output
is in the graphics format given by ofmt, preceded by a suitable "Content-type" declaration.

* discard: Plot is drawn, but discarded. There is no output.

* auto: Behaves as swing or out mode depending on presence of out parameter

out=<out-file>
The location of the output file. This is usually a filename to write to. If it is equal to the
special value "-" the output will be written to standard output.

ofmt=png|png-transp|gif|jpeg|pdf|eps|eps-gzip
Graphics format in which the plot is written to the output file, see SUN/256. One of:

* png: PNG

* png-transp: PNG with transparent background

* gif: GIF

* jpeg: JPEG

* pdf: Portable Document Format

* eps: Encapsulated PostScript

* eps-gzip: Gzipped Encapsulated PostScript
May default to a sensible value depending on the filename given by out.

inN=<table>
The location of the input table. This may take one of the following forms:

* A filename.

* A URL.

* The special value "-", meaning standard input. In this case the input format must be given
explicitly using the ifmtN parameter. Note that not all formats can be streamed in this way.

* A system command line with either a "<" character at the start, or a "|" character at the end
("<syscmd" or "syscmd|"). This executes the given pipeline and reads from its standard output.
This will probably only work on unix-like systems.
In any case, compressed data in one of the supported compression formats (gzip, Unix compress or
bzip2) will be decompressed transparently.

ifmtN=<in-format>
Specifies the format of the input table as specified by parameter inN. The known formats are
listed in SUN/256. This flag can be used if you know what format your table is in. If it has the
special value (auto) (the default), then an attempt will be made to detect the format of the table
automatically. This cannot always be done correctly however, in which case the program will exit
with an error explaining which formats were attempted.

istreamN=true|false
If set true, the input table specified by the inN parameter will be read as a stream. It is
necessary to give the ifmtN parameter in this case. Depending on the required operations and
processing mode, this may cause the read to fail (sometimes it is necessary to read the table more
than once). It is not normally necessary to set this flag; in most cases the data will be streamed
automatically if that is the best thing to do. However it can sometimes result in less resource
usage when processing large files in certain formats (such as VOTable).

cmdN=<cmds>
Specifies processing to be performed on the table. The value of this parameter is one or more of
the filter commands described in SUN/256. If more than one is given, they must be separated by
semicolon characters (";"). This parameter can be repeated multiple times on the same command line
to build up a list of processing steps. The sequence of commands given in this way defines the
processing pipeline which is performed on the table.

Commands may alteratively be supplied in an external file, by using the indirection character '@'.
Thus a value of "@filename" causes the file filename to be read for a list of filter commands to
execute. The commands in the file may be separated by newline characters and/or semicolons, and
lines which are blank or which start with a '#' character are ignored.

xdataN=<expr>
Gives a column name or expression for the x axis data for table N. The expression is a numeric
algebraic expression based on column names as described in SUN/256

xlo=<float-value>
The lower limit for the plotted x axis. If not set, a value will be chosen which is low enough to
accommodate all the data.

xhi=<float-value>
The upper limit for the plotted x axis. If not set, a value will be chosen which is high enough to
accommodate all the data.

xlog=true|false
If false (the default), the scale on the x axis is linear; if true it is logarithmic.

xflip=true|false
If set true, the scale on the x axis will increase in the opposite sense from usual (e.g. right to
left rather than left to right).

xlabel=<value>
Specifies a label to be used for annotating axis x. A default values based on the plotted data
will be used if no value is supplied for this parameter.

subsetNS=<expr>
Gives the selection criterion for the subset labelled "NS". This is a boolean expression which may
be the name of a boolean-valued column or any other boolean-valued expression. Rows for which the
expression evaluates true will be included in the subset, and those for which it evaluates false
will not.

nameNS=<value>
Provides a name to use for a subset with the symbolic label NS. This name will be used for display
in the legend, if one is displayed.

colourNS=<rrggbb>|red|blue|...
Defines the colour of bars plotted for data set NS. The value may be a 6-digit hexadecimal number
giving red, green and blue intensities, e.g. "ff00ff" for magenta. Alternatively it may be the
name of one of the pre-defined colours. These are currently red, blue, green, grey, magenta, cyan,
orange, pink, yellow, black and white.

For most purposes, either the American or the British spelling is accepted for this parameter
name.

barstyleNS=fill|open|...
Defines how histogram bars will be drawn for dataset NS. The options are:

* fill

* open

* tops

* semi

* semitops

* spikes

* fillover

* openover

linewidthNS=<int-value>
Defines the line width for lines drawn as part of the bars for dataset NS. Only certain bar styles
are affected by the line width.

dashNS=dot|dash|...|<a,b,...>
Defines the dashing pattern for lines drawn for dataset NS. To generate a dashed line the value
may be one of the named dash types:

* dot

* dash

* longdash

* dotdash
or may be a comma-separated string of on/off length values such as "4,2,8,2". A null value
indicates a solid line. Only certain bar styles are affected by the dash pattern.

grid=true|false
If true, grid lines are drawn on the plot. If false, they are absent.

antialias=true|false
Controls whether lines are drawn using antialiasing, where applicable. If lines are drawn to a
bitmapped-type graphics output format setting this parameter to true smooths the lines out by
using gradations of colour for diagonal lines, and setting it false simply sets each pixel in the
line to on or off. For vector-type graphics output formats, or for cases in which no diagonal
lines are drawn, the setting of this parameter has no effect. Setting it true may slow the plot
down slightly.

sequence=<suffix>,<suffix>,...
Can be used to control the sequence in which different datasets and subsets are plotted. This will
affect which symbols are plotted on top of, and so potentially obscure, which other ones. The
value of this parameter is a comma-separated list of the "NS" suffixes which appear on the
parameters which apply to subsets. The sets which are named will be plotted in order, so the
first-named one will be at the bottom (most likely to be obscured). Note that if this parameter is
supplied, then only those sets which are named will be plotted, so this parameter may also be used
to restrict which plots appear (though it may not be the most efficient way of doing this). If no
explicit value is supplied for this parameter, sets will be plotted in some sequence decided by
STILTS (probably alphabetic by suffix).

ylo=<float-value>
Lower bound for Y axis.

yhi=<float-value>
Upper bound for Y axis. Autogenerated from the data if not supplied.

ylog=true|false
Whether to use a logarithmic scale for the Y axis.

ylabel=<value>
Specifies a label for annotating the vertical axis. A default value based on the type of histogram
will be used if no value is supplied for this parameter.

weightN=<value>
Defines a weighting for each point accumulated to determine the height of plotted bars. If this
parameter has a value other than 1 (the default) then instead of simply accumulating the number of
points per bin to determine bar height, the bar height will be the sum over the weighting
expression for the points in each bin. Note that with weighting, the figure drawn is no longer
strictly speaking a histogram.

When weighted, bars can be of negative height. An anomaly of the plot as currently implemented is
that the Y axis never descends below zero, so any such bars are currently invisible. This may be
amended in a future release (contact the author to lobby for such an amendment).

binwidth=<float-value>
Defines the width on the X axis of histogram bins. If the X axis is logarithmic, then this is a
multiplicative value.

norm=true|false
Determines whether bin counts are normalised. If true, histogram bars are scaled such that summed
height of all bars over the whole dataset is equal to one. Otherwise (the default), no scaling is
done.

cumulative=true|false
Determines whether historams are cumulative. When false (the default), the height of each bar is
determined by counting the number of points which fall into the range on the X axis that it
covers. When true, the height is determined by counting all the points between negative infinity
and the upper bound of the range on the X axis that it covers.

binbase=<float-value>
Adjusts the offset of the bins. By default zero (or one for logarithmic X axis) is a boundary
between bins; other boundaries are defined by this and the bin width. If this value is adjusted,
the lower bound of one of the bins will be set to this value, so all the bins move along by the
corresponding distance.

VERSION

       STILTS version 3.2-debian

       This is the Debian version of Stilts, which lack the support of some file formats and network  protocols.
       For differences see
       file:///usr/share/doc/stilts/README.Debian

AUTHOR