PharmaSUG China 2019 - Flowcharts Drawn with SAS/GTL - Paper DV-43

Sep 12, 2026

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Flowcharts are critical diagrams for visualizing logical data hierarchies in a clear, step-by-step structure. Prior approaches using SAS macros or other tools often demand additional learning and limit flexibility, increasing time and effort. This paper presents a simple, flexible SAS/GTL-based method that anchors different texts at specified coordinates using GTL TEXTPLOT and VECTORPLOT together with DRAWTEXT, DRAWARROW, and DRAWLINE, enabling customizable flowchart layouts without macros.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

DATA SET FOR SAMPLE FLOWCHART

PART 1: Texts

PART 2: Arrows/Lines

TEMPLATE FOR SAMPLE FLOWCHART

TEXTPLOT and VECTORPLOT usage

POSITION, VCENTER, SPLITPOLICY options

DRAWLINE for line segments

PharmaSUG China 2019-Paper DV-043 Flowcharts Drawn with SAS/GTL Xiufang Zhang , Xiang Wang, FMD K&L Inc. , Nanjing, China ABSTRACT Flowcharts are a very important form of diagrams which can clearly show the logical hierarchy of data. However, previous methods of creating flowcharts with SAS macros[1,3] or other tools[2] require further learning of the specified macros or other tools needed which is inflexible and time costly. This paper will introduce a simple and flexible way to create flowcharts which have various texts anchoring in different positions according to coordinates by using graph template (GTL) containing TEXTPLOT, VECTORPLOT statements combined with DRAWTEXT, DRAWARROW and DRAWLINE statement. INTRODUCTION A flowchart is a graphical or symbolic representation of a process which makes data visualized. Each step of the process is represented by a different symbol and contains a short description of the step. The flowchart symbols are linked together with arrows showing the process flow direction. In pharmaceuticals, using flowcharts can make the experimental process easier to understand. Flowcharts have various forms and can be obtained with many methods, such as, SAS/GRAPH using Annotate macros, Visual Basic Scripting (VBS), and manually in Microsoft Word. The first method requires understanding all the macros used, which is hard for amateurs. The other two are not suitable in SAS environment, so, if need to output a flowchart in SAS environment, these two methods are not feasible. This paper introduces a simple method in developing flowcharts with SAS/GTL without any macros. Various forms offlowcharts are dependent on the position of texts or boxes which are determined by their coordinates. Therefore, a desired flowchart can be obtained by adjusting the related coordinates of texts or boxes. An example offlowcharts will be given in Figure 1 and its drawing details will be described below. Figure 1: Example of a Flowchart DATA SET FOR SAMPLE FLOWCHART To obtain a flowchart as Figure 1, a data set is needed and two parts of the data set are displaying below. Code for developing this data set is showing in Appendix 1. In Part 1, variable text indicates the texts displayed in the boxes of Figure 1. (x_, y_ ) represents coordinates of the corresponding text or box for each text. In Part 2,(m1, n1) and (m2, n2) are origin coordinates and end coordinates of the arrows or lines respectively. Variables “name1” and “name2” are texts at beginning and end of arrows, once we need to change any arrows ’ locations these two variables can help us to relocate the target arrows immediately. Adjusting x_, y_, m1, n1, m2, n2 combined with output figures will customize the required flowcharts. PART 1: Texts PART 2: Arrows/Lines TEMPLATE FOR SAMPLE FLOWCHART As mentioned in Abstract, this paper will introduce creating flowchart with GTL. Therefore, it’s necessary to create a template for flowchart. Example code displayed as below: proc template ; define statgraph textplot; begingraph; layout overlay / yaxisopts=(linearopts=(viewmin=0 viewmax=45) display=none) xaxisopts=(linearopts=(viewmin=0 viewmax=50) display=none) walldisplay=none; textplot x=x_ y=y_ text=text / name="m" position=center splitpolicy=split splitchar="*" splitchardrop=true vcenter=bbox position=center display=(fill outline) fillattrs=(color=blue transparency=1) textattrs=(weight=bold color=black); vectorplot xorigin=m1 yorigin=n1 x=m2 y=n2 / xaxis=x yaxis=yarrowdirection=out arrowheadshape=open lineattrs=(pattern=solid thickness=1px color=black); drawline x1=35 y1=25 x2=35 y2=10 / xaxis=x yaxis=ydrawspace=datavalue lineattrs=(pattern=solid thickness=1px color=black); endlayout; endgraph; end; run ; ods listing close; proc sgrender data=treat template=textplot; run ; ods listing; The template shows that: values of axes depend on coordinates which are stored in data set,“DISPLAY=

FAQs

Why are flowcharts important in pharmaceuticals and data communication?

Flowcharts visually represent processes as a sequence of steps, using symbols and arrows to show direction. In pharmaceuticals, this helps make experimental processes easier to understand and follow.

What limitation do earlier methods using SAS macros or other tools have?

Those methods require learning specific macros or tools and are inflexible, making them time-consuming to use.

How does the proposed SAS/GTL approach control the placement of text and arrows?

The method relies on coordinates stored in a data set. TEXTPLOT places texts using X and Y positions, while VECTORPLOT sets arrow origins and terminals via XORIGIN/YORIGIN and X/Y, and DRAWLINE handles line segments without arrowheads.

Sep 12, 2026

Upload by Rowan