Speaking Stata: Graphing Categorical and Compositional Data

Abstract

A variety of graphs have been devised for categorical and compositional data, ranging from widely familiar to more unusual displays. Both official Stata commands and user-written programs are available. After a stacking trick for binary responses is explained, bar charts and related displays for cross-tabulations are discussed in detail. Tips and tricks are introduced for plotting cumulative distributions of graded (ordinal) data. Triangular plots are explained for three-way compositions, such as three proportions or percentages.