[pstricks] pst-bar With Non-Numeric Data?

[Leon Free]

Le 01/06/2011 23:59, Rich Shepard a écrit :
>   Reading the pst-bar doc tells me that the external data file must have
> only numeric values following the header line. This makes me ask if
> PSTricks
> is the appropriate tool to produce a bar chart/histogram for precipitation
> amounts at a station.
> 
>   The data consist of a date (from 2008-01-01 through 2010-12-31 inclusive)
> and the precipitation amount (comma separated). However, there are 50 dates
> for which no measurements are available. A pst-bar data file constraint is
> that each row have the same number of elements. Having no measurement is
> different from a recorded 0.00 and the file currently uses NA for use in R.
> 
>   Because my data violate the two pst-bar constraints (only numeric and the
> same elements on each row), I'd appreciate suggestions on how to illustrate
> these data effectively.
> 
> Rich
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hi rich,
gnuplot (google it to get the project home page)? it is a programming
language (macros) that builds almost all types of plots. its use is
similar to latex+pstricks (compilation of a source). it can handle non
numeric data, missing values and it can export to bitmap, svg, (e)ps,
pdf, and latex code (with graphicx, epic, pstricks macros). it has
macros that allows for a very wide range of graphic styles (curves,
surfaces, bars, histograms, error bars, circles, etc).
when i need to plot data, i often use gnuplot to generate the latex code
that plots the data and i make changes in the code to get labels, axes,
etc the way i want (position, orientation, font, etc). in that way i
have a high quality plot that integrates perfectly a whole latex document.