Apply Template on line diagram with dashed lines in SPSS

I created a line diagram with multiple lines with the Chart Builder in SPSS. Within the Chart Editor I changed the line style from "color" to "dash". I saved the style as a template to apply it to further similar line charts. However the template doesn't seem to be applied, the lines are still colored and not dashed.

Is there a way to tell SPSS in the Syntax to apply a dashed line style from template?

Solution

Yes, you have to tell SPSS inside the GPL statement that you want to use a dashed style.

So lets assume you created the following chart from the 'breakfast.sav' sample file:

GGRAPH 
  /GRAPHDATASET NAME="graphdataset" VARIABLES=BT COUNT()[name="COUNT"] 
  gender[LEVEL=NOMINAL] MISSING=LISTWISE REPORTMISSING=NO 
  /GRAPHSPEC SOURCE=INLINE TEMPLATE = "$HOME/SPSS/linediagram.sgt". 
BEGIN GPL 
  SOURCE: s=userSource(id("graphdataset")) 
  DATA: BT=col(source(s), name("BT"), unit.category()) 
  DATA: COUNT=col(source(s), name("COUNT")) 
  DATA: gender=col(source(s), name("gender"), unit.category()) 
  GUIDE: axis(dim(1), label("Buttered toast")) 
  GUIDE: axis(dim(2), label("Percent")) 
  GUIDE: legend(aesthetic(aesthetic.color.interior), label("Gender")) 
  SCALE: linear(dim(2), include(0)) 
  SCALE: cat(aesthetic(aesthetic.color.interior), include("1", "2")) 
  ELEMENT: line(position(summary.percent(BT*COUNT, 
           base.aesthetic(aesthetic(aesthetic.color.interior)))), 
           color.interior(gender), missing.wings()) 
END GPL.

Now within the ELEMENT statement you need to change both color.interior functions into shape.interior. So the statement would look like this.

  ELEMENT: line(position(summary.percent(BT*COUNT, 
           base.aesthetic(aesthetic(aesthetic.shape.interior)))), 
           shape.interior(gender), missing.wings())

This turns the colored lines into black dashed lines.

If you want colored and dashed lines, just add the shape.interior(gender) function to the existing ELEMENT statement:

  ELEMENT: line(position(summary.percent(BT*COUNT, 
           base.aesthetic(aesthetic(aesthetic.color.interior)))), 
           color.interior(gender), shape.interior(gender), missing.wings())