The PROC PARETO statement starts the PARETO procedure, and it optionally identifies various data sets and requests line printer charts.

To create a Pareto chart, you specify a chart statement (VBAR or HBAR) after the PROC PARETO statement. The chart statement specifies the type of Pareto chart you want to create and the variables in the input data set that you want to analyze. A VBAR statement produces a chart with vertical bars; an HBAR statement produces a chart with horizontal bars. For example, the following statements request a horizontal Pareto chart with blue bars on a green background:

proc pareto data=Failures;
   hbar Reason1 / cbars  = blue
                  cframe = green;
run;

The DATA= option specifies the input data set (Failures) containing the variable (Reason1) to be analyzed.

A Pareto chart has three axes:

On a vertical bar chart the category axis is displayed horizontally at the bottom of the chart. The frequency axis (also called the primary vertical axis) is on the left. The cumulative percent axis (or secondary vertical axis) is displayed on the right.

On a horizontal bar chart the category axis is displayed vertically on the left side of the chart. The frequency axis (primary horizontal axis) is displayed at the top of the chart. The cumulative percent axis (secondary horizontal axis) is at the bottom.