Scatterplot help

[Tim Bates]

I'm looking for advice on how to produce a scatterplot.

I have data describing two events, A & B, and the year in which each event occurred.

Unit of observation is US states.

In some states, both events A & B have occurred; in other states only one or the other event has occurred.

I want the plot space to reflect observations (i.e. states) where both events have occurred: X-axis is Event A/Year; Y-axis is Event B/Year.

I also want the plot space to be bisected by a line at a 45 degree angle.

The bisecting line would reflect event A and event B occurring in the same year.

Above the bisecting line are observations where event A occurred before event B;
below the bisecting line are observations where event B occurred before event A

Furthermore, at the edges of the plot space I want to create lines that plot observations where only one or the other event has occurred.

A line running along the top of the plot space (parallel to X-axis) would capture states where event B occurred, but not event A;
a line running along the right edge (parallel to Y-axis) of the plot space would reflect states where event A occurred but not event B.

I have attached a PDF mock-up of the graph I'm trying to create.

Thanks in advance for consideration.

[Carole J. Wilson]

Tim,
Maybe the following will get you started.

clear
input yearA yearB
1980  1980
1981  1979
1982  1983
1984  1984
1985  1982
1986  1988
1987  1987
1988   .
.      1978
end
replace yearA=1990 if yearA==.
replace yearB=1990 if yearB==.

scatter yearA yearB, ///
  ylab(1975(5)1990 1990 `" `"Event A"' `"is Missing"' "', angle(0)) ///
  xlab(1975(5)1990 1990 `" `"Event B"' `"is Missing"' "') ///
  ytitle(Year of Event A) xtitle(Year of Event B) ///
  xline(1990, lpattern(dash)) yline(1990, lpattern(dash)) ///
  graphregion(margin(large)) legend(off)  ///
  || function y=x, range(1975 1990)

[Tim Bates]

Thank you! That definitely looks like the graph I'm trying to produce.