Column Property: Inclusive/forced Values (💚)

[hogi]

☑ cool new feature
☑ could help many users!

☑ removes something that feels like a „bug“

☐ nice to have

☐ nobody needs it

#myTop10_2024

-> JMP 19 : )

What inspired this wish list request? 
short:

In Jmp it's quite complicated to generate a plot like this!

Inclusive values will fix the issue ...

long:

During the Semiconductor Lunch meeting @ Discovery Summit 2024 Europe, we found out that many of us have a similar problem:

GraphBuilder Plots with missing data.

examples:

- date with missing month, day, year ( A way to show a date with no data in graph builder )

- wafer lists with missing wafer (for 25 wafers in a 5x5 grid generated via Wrap, wafer #20 should always be at the same position, independent of how many wafers < 20 are in the data / missing)

- wafermaps with missing dies

- pass / fail

- bins with pre-defined categories (0 occurences for a specific bin)

...

Motivation via date: 

at first glance, nobody will notice that the data for Tuesday is missing - there is not even a label on the axis.

To make the missing day appear, one can add a dummy row, Day of Week = Tue, all other entries of the row: missing.

... till somebody uses a data filter - then Tue is gone:

The only way to make it work: a dummy row for EVERY (!!!) item in the data filter.
And if the user has a chance to change the column for the data filter: for EVERY item in ANY column the user may pick.
Ouch !!!

What is the improvement you would like to see? 

Please add a column property for inclusive values *) - values which should always show up on the axis.

For days of week: all days of the week :)

For 25 "wafers" in a lot: all numbers from 1 to 25.

For pass/fail : pass and fail . Such that one day when there is a lot with 0 fails the plot will say: fails = 0. Instead of: not showing any number of fails.

Besides usage for axes, also X/Y Group & Wrap should react on the new setting. The same for Overlay and Color.

*) "inclusive"? what is the best name for the property? 

- "default value" sounds like 

- additional, auxiliary, supplemental suggest that the value is no actual value of the column

- after some discussion, Copilot suggested "inclusive" values - values which should be included, if missing.

Why is this idea important? 

With the new column property INCLUSIVE VALUES,

- missing value information gets visible (!!!)

- the plots can be generated MUCH easier

- the generated plots are "robust" (example with Data Filter!)

other wishes from 

[hogi]

As discussed on #Discoverysummit2025, it should be easy for JMP to automatically fill "forced value" for everyday lists like days_of_week, months,  ...
JMP sorts such entries automatically - very comfortable! As the information is there, it just has to be accessed via the Force Values interface ...

[Sarah-Sylvestre]

Hi @hogi, thank you for sending your feedback to jmpbeta@jmp.com 

That is the best place to send feedback on a feature in the EA. I am updating the status of this feature as it will be in JMP 19. 

[hogi]

I am very happy with the new functionality, it helps me a lot.
e.g. let's assume we want to plot Physical Activity - but there is no data for Hawaii.
Just use Forced Values - and Hawaii will show up in the plot - with a missing values.

View more...

dt = Open( "$SAMPLE_DATA/US Demographics.jmp" );
dtStacked = dt << Stack(
	columns(
		:Population, :Eighth Grade Math, :High School Graduates,
		:Gross State Product, :Vegetable Consumption, :Smokers, :Physical Activity,
		:Obese, :College Degrees, :Alcohol Consumption, :Latitude, :Longitude,
		:Household Income, :IQ
	)
);

dtStacked << Select Where( is missing (:Data) ) << delete rows;

The plot looks quite crowded, so let's split the plot by regions:

There is no row in the data table with State = Hawaii, so JMP doesn't know the region. This is why Hawaii shows up in all 4 regions.
... the same happens for all the other states. I was tempted to suggest an extended version of 'Forced Values', but I couldn't work out how to do it. (for values with existing entries, one could ask JMP to use those, don't invent new states in different regions - but how about Hawaii, which is missing in the data table ?!)

This example shows the limitations of Forced Values for the application "show a placeholder in the plot, even if there is no data".
The only way to produce the correct plot is via dummy rows , right?

[hogi]

forced values for continuous values - see:
https://community.jmp.com/t5/JMP-Wish-List/Column-Property-Inclusive-forced-Values/idc-p/799363/high... 

wow, it made it into the JMP Prioritization Survey 2025!

edit: ah, no - refers to another idea ...
see next post.

[hogi]

Ouch! Just after submitting the last post, I re-read the entry in the survey


and thought about this wish:
Graph Builder: missing data option for continuous values 

which asks for something like this: