Speaking Stata: Some simple devices to ease the spaghetti problem

Nicholas Cox

Stata Journal, 2019, vol. 19, issue 4, 989-1008

Abstract: The spaghetti problem arises in graphics when multiple time series or other functional traces show mostly a tangled mess. Devices to improve on graph- ical defaults include transformed scales (especially logarithmic scales); trying to increase the graph area showing the data (especially by losing the legend whenever possible); different colors sometimes; subdividing data into a few groups; subtrac- tion to focus on residuals or smoothing to reduce noise; selection or sampling of what is shown or emphasized; and stacking series vertically.

Keywords: graphics; line plots; quantile plots; marker labels; panel data; longitudinal data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1536867X19893641

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