What can be visualized effectively using PROC SGPANEL?

PROC SGPANEL is specifically designed to create graphs that display data categorized across multiple groups, making it particularly effective for visualizing categorical data. This procedure allows for the creation of panel charts, where you can compare the distribution of one or more categorical variables across different levels of other categorical variables. For instance, you can visualize how a particular variable varies across different categories or levels by using facets (panels) for each category.

The procedure excels at breaking down complex datasets into simpler, comparative visuals, showing trends or distributions clearly across groups. This is particularly useful in exploratory data analysis, where understanding relationships among categorical variables is critical.

Time series data generally requires procedures like PROC SGPLOT or PROC TIMESERIES, which focus on trends over a continuous variable (usually time) rather than categorical relationships. Hierarchical data, while it could be visualized, is not the primary strength of PROC SGPANEL, which focuses on independent categories and their interactions. Text data, such as survey responses, requires different techniques, often involving text mining or specific graphing procedures to handle the unstructured nature of text. Thus, categorical data across multiple groups is the clear focus of PROC SGPANEL, validating the choice made as the correct one.