All saved graphs are .gph despite specifying different extension with saving()

[Benigno Rodriguez]

Hi,

I am trying to generate and save a series of dotplots using a loop. The relevant lines are:

local intint AgeAtHAART YearsOfVL_FU_afterSuccess400 YearsSpentUndetectable PeakVLBefARVs BaselineCD4 MaxCD4At2y PercentCD4Change AbsIncrease2y RDWatHAART WBCatHAART HgbAtHAART MCVatHAART PLTatHAART SCrAtHAART eGFRHAART SCrAtImmuneFail eGFRImmuneFail AZTd4T_PeriodsDuringObs AZTd4Ttime FolInh_PeriodsDuringObs FolateInhTime ACEI_PeriodsDuringObs ACEItime ARB_PeriodsDuringObs ARBtime RTVperiodsDuringObs RTVtime

foreach x of var `intint' {
dotplot `x' if RDWatHAART >0, over(CD4Above350At2y) median bar center msymbol(o) saving(`x'.jpg, replace)
}

All the expected graphs are generated and saved, with .jpg extensions, but when I try to use them in other applications (e.g., insert them into a PowerPoint slide), they are unreadable. If I manually change the extension to .gph, sure enough, Stata opens them without complaint. Adding the asif option also doesn't change the behavior.

Any ideas?

[Mike Lacy]

You need to use the -graph export- command to save a graph in format other than gph.

[Benigno Rodriguez]

Can -graph export- be used in a loop, as in the original posting? If so, could you suggest the relevant syntax? I am trying to avoid having to save each graph individually, as I have a large number of variables I need plotted. Thank you very much for your help!

[Mike Lacy]

Did you find something in the documentation that made you think that -graph export- can't be used in a loop? Or, did you try it and have it not work? Nothing terrible will happen if you try something and it doesn't work. That's in fact a good way to learn something.

Reading the documentation for -graph export- would show, by the way, that jpg is not a supported output format. I often use png, so you could try something like:

foreach x of etc ... {
   dotplot etc....   without saving
   graph export "`x'.png"
}

[Benigno Rodriguez]

I tried .PNG first. I didn't try what you suggest, only b/c it didn't occur to me that I could just nest the second command after issuing the -graph- command. As I read the -graph- ecport- documentation, it seemed as though it would only export the last graph in memory. I'm on myobile now, will try your suggestion when I get back to computer and report back. Thank you again for your help.

[Mike Lacy]

Because there is a loop, the last graph in memory is currently changing. So, each call to -graph export- will export a different graph.

[Benigno Rodriguez]

Worked exactly as intended! Thank you so very much. As I said, I hadn't tried it simply because I did not recognize it as a possibility. I learned something new from this, and I do appreciate it.