Example 7.14: A simple graphic of sales

In this example, we show a simple plot of the sales rank data read in as shown in example 7.13.

SAS
In SAS, we use the symbol statement (section 5.3) to request small (with the h option) dots (with the v option, and that the dots not be connected (with the i option. (See sections 5.2.2, 5.3.9 for more details.)
we request a scatter plot with the gplot procdure (section 5.1.1), and tell SAS how to display the date/time values using the format statement (section A.6.4).

symbol1 v=dot i=none h=.2;
proc gplot data=sales;
   plot rank*salestime;
   format salestime datetime7.;
run;

Note in the results that the default SAS behavior is to use round and regular axis tick marks, in this case wasting a great deal of space on both axes. Similarly, the orientation of the y-axis labels uses up much space as well. We'll fix this behavior in a later entry.

R
In contrast, the R code is both simpler and more attractive by default; the plot() function (section 5.1.1) has a default treatment for date/time-formatted variables. Our only modification to the defaults is to request dots (with the pch option (section 5.2.2) instead of the default open circles.

plot(timeval, rank, pch=20)

Interpretation: As noted in a previous entry, information about the Amazon sales rank is relatively scant. Amazon considers the number of books it sells to be a competitive secret, and it discloses little information about how the rank is calculated. However, by examining the plot above, we can make some deductions. First, sales ranks are updated at least hourly. Second, there appears to be some adjustment for time of day. This would explain the smooth changes in direction during, for example, the first series of ~20 observations. In contrast, notable discontinuous changes in rank apparently signify sales; for a book with small circulation, such as this one, we can assume that most hours contain only one sale.