- Extract numerical data embedded in alpha
characters from text files. There is no need
for special file formatting, other than lines
that are less than 1024 characters long,
terminated with a newline character.
Tabs, spaces, words; any
non-numeric character will delimit the numerical
data. This is a powerful feature for extracting
numerical data where you might not normally think
of finding it; such as copyright dates,
people's ages, or web server statistics. Configure
a web server to give access to log files and
GUIPlot
can download the data using the HTTP protocol and
extract the numerical data in the log file based
on keywords or other conditional filtering.
- Histograms. Switch between an X-Y plot and
a histogram of the same data with the touch of a
button. Press the D key to Duplicate a plot, then
the H key and the duplicate switches to a
histogram. With two key strokes, you have an X-Y
plot and a histogram side-by-side.
- Measure data features with the mouse.
Click the left mouse button anywhere on a plot
and the X-Y coordinates of where you clicked are
displayed in the status bar. Drag across the plot
and a box is drawn with its size and the current
mouse position displayed in the status bar. This
can be used to measure features such as periods
or the size of peaks in your data.
- Do zoom plots. Hold down the shift key and
draw a box around a section of your plot and a
new window pops up with a plot of only the data
in the box, scaled to fit the window. You can
un-zoom, change the zoom area and re-zoom (see
example on this page).
- Exclude outliers. Hold down the CTRL key
and draw a box around a section of your data. GUIPlot will
exclude all lines from the data file that
produced points inside the box. Then it will
rescale and redraw the plot (see example on this page).
- Store plot setups. Once you've stored a
plot setup, you can tell GUIPlot
to associate a filename extension with that setup
file. Then, when you drop a file with that
extension on a GUIPlot
window, it will be plotted automatically.
- Define the aspect ratio of the plot. If
you are plotting curve data it may be important
to know if it forms an arc or a parabola. GUIPlot lets
you set the aspect ratio of the X and Y size of
the plot window so your plot will look like it
should. 1 to 1 would make an accurate arc.
- Do X-Y plots with lines, points or both.
Select line/point color, line type and the
character used to represent the point.
- Output the data from the plot region to a
file. This feature enables graphically
filtering files by plotting them, zooming or
excluding, then outputting what's left to a new
file.
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- Store plot objects. In a production
environment, files where process data is stored
keep growing and must be examined periodically.
Outliers happen. Anomalies that are important to
see once get in the way and cause an auto-scale
plotting program to set a scale that makes the
bulk of data impossible to see. If you turn off
the auto-scale and set it to a pre-determined
value then you won't see the outliers. GUIPlot lets
you exclude the outliers once and store the plot
as an object. The object contains a link to the
data file, all plot setup parameters and a list
of excluded data. When you open the object a week
later, the same plot is displayed with the
addition of this week's data. The old outliers
aren't back, causing scaling problems.
- Plot a file with a format you've never plotted
before by entering only two formulas; one for
the X axis and one for the Y axis. These formulas
might be as simple as "L", which uses
the line number from the data file for the axis'
coordinates. "C1" for the Y formula and
"L" for the X formula will plot column
one (first numerical field from each line of
data) Vs the data file's line number. Formulas
can be much more complex. For example,
"LOG(ABS(C2-C1))" will plot the base 10
log of the absolute value of the difference of
column 1 and column 2. There can be any number of
Y axis formulas, allowing multiple graphs on one
plot.
- Calculate basic statistical data. By
showing the optional statistics, GUIPlot
will find the max, min, mean, standard deviation
and quantity for each graph on the plot. This is
a very powerful tool when combined with the zoom
feature for analyzing groups like unusual
production runs.
- Drop multiple files. Using File Manager
(Explorer in Windows95), select multiple data
files and drop them on GUIPlot's
main window. The files can be concatenated,
making, in effect, a file with as many lines as
the sum of the two files. Alternatively, the
lines can be concatenated, making, in effect, a
file with as many columns as the sum of the two
files. Files may be dropped on an existing plot
with similar results. Storing the plot as an
object stores the way files were concatenated.
- Copy a plot to the clipboard. GUIPlot has
a copy command that copies the graphical plot to
the clipboard. It can then be pasted into a word
processor or drawing program document.
- Paste text from the clipboard. Copy data
from a spreadsheet or other Windows program and
paste it into GUIPlot.
An intermediate file is created that can be saved
or simply used to render a plot.
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