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|svg|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|svg|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

* svg: Scalable Vector Graphics

* 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 scheme specification of the form :<scheme-name>:<scheme-args>.

* 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. This parameter is ignored for scheme-specified
tables.

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). This parameter is
ignored for scheme-specified tables.

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 3.4.7-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