PharmaSUG 2018-Paper DV-20 - V is for Venn Diagrams

Oct 29, 2026

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Produce two-, three-, and four-way Venn diagrams easily using SAS Graph Template Language, specifically DRAWOVAL and DRAWTEXT. The approach addresses how Venn diagrams are often built in the pharmaceutical industry with Excel and PowerPoint, and shows a SAS 9.4 %VENN macro that supports normal and proportional diagrams. For qualitative data, it computes group counts and percentages, then renders the diagram, optionally showing numbers in proportional output legends.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

MACRO CALL

Program 1 : Macro Call

Macro variable options and diagram types

Output datasets (WORK library)

PharmaSUG 2018-Paper DV-20 V is for Venn Diagrams Kriss Harris , SAS Specialists Limited ABSTRACT Would you like to produce Venn diagrams easily? This paper shows how you can produce stunning two- , three- , and four-way Venn diagrams by using the Graph Template Language, in particular the DRAWOVAL and DRAWTEXT statements. From my experience, Venn diagrams have typically been created in the pharmaceutical industry by using Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint. Excel is used to first count the numbers in each group, and PowerPoint is used to generate the two-or three-way Venn diagrams. The four-way Venn diagram is largely unheard of. When someone is brave enough to tackle it manually, working out the numbers that should go in each of the 16 groups and entering the right number into the right group is usually done nervously! INTRODUCTION Venn diagrams where introduced in 1883 by John Venn (1834-1923) , the Hull born philosopher and mathematician. They are a great way to visualize elements that are unique to only one group and simultaneously visualize elements that intersect with other groups. They are symmetrical by nature and the number of groups in a Venn diagram = 2n (including the group outside the diagram) . Venn diagrams are built into JMP Genomics. The web applications (Oliveros, 2018) and (Hulsen, 2018) can also be used to create Venn diagrams. Sometimes you may need to keep your data within SAS and this paper will demonstrate a macro that can be used in SAS® 9.4 to create Venn diagrams. Unlike the previous paper which shows how to produce Venn diagrams using quantitative data and a specified cutoff (Harris, V is for Venn Diagrams, 2013) , this paper shows how to produce Venn diagrams when the data is qualitative. Essentially there are two sections to this macro. The first section calculates the numbers and percentages for each group of the Venn diagram and the second section produces the Venn diagram. Two types of Venn diagrams can be created: normal and proportional Venn diagrams. If you want to output a normal Venn diagram, where the circles or ellipses are all the same size, then Graph Template Language (GTL) will create the Venn diagram. If you want to output a proportional Venn diagram then the API for Google Charts will produce the Venn diagram; the inspiration for the Google Charts method came from the paper (Kruger, 2011) . In the paper “Creating Proportional Venn Diagrams Using Google and SAS®”, Kruger shows how the API for Google Charts can produce proportional Venn diagrams. This paper builds Kruger’s paper by also calculating the numbers for each group within the Venn diagram , and also allowing the numbers in each group to be displayed on the figure. MACRO CALL Program 1 below illustrates how the macro call works for the %VENN macro. | %macro venn(
dsn = 1
,proportional = 0 ,venn_diagram = 2

,varA =
,varB =
,varC =
,varD =

4 | | | --- | --- | ,LabelA = List A ,LabelB = List B ,LabelC = List C ,LabelD = List D ,percentage = 0 6 ,prop_n_label = 0 7 ,out_location = C: \SGF2018\VennDiagram\output 8 ,outputfilename = Venn diagram 9 ); Program 1 : Macro Call Define the data set name. An example data set named VENNDATA has been created in the program and is available for use. The data set is largely based on the SASHELP.CARS data set , but the dataset was modified so that some of the elements would be in the other Venn diagram groups. The information from (Jedi, 2018) was used to convert the data set into SAS datalines so that the data set could easily be created and used within the macro. To produce a normal Venn diagram set the PROPORTIONAL macro variable value to be 0, and if you want to produce a proportional Venn diagram set the macro variable value to be 1. Normal Venn diagrams are produced by default. If the PROPORTIONAL macro variable value is set to 0, then you are able to create two ,three , or fourway Venn diagrams, by

FAQs

How does the paper generate Venn diagrams in SAS?

It uses Graph Template Language (GTL) with DRAWOVAL and DRAWTEXT to draw normal Venn diagrams, while proportional Venn diagrams are produced using the Google Charts API approach within the %VENN macro.

What determines whether the output is a normal or proportional Venn diagram?

Set the PROPORTIONAL macro variable to 0 for normal diagrams (numbers and intersections). Set PROPORTIONAL to 1 for proportional diagrams, where numbering behavior can be controlled via prop_n_label.

How many groups can be created, and which macro variables are required?

For normal Venn diagrams, set VENN_DIAGRAM to 2, 3, or 4 to create two-, three-, or four-way diagrams. VARA and VARB are required for two-way; VARC is required for three-way; VARD is required for four-way.

Oct 29, 2026

Upload by Miles