Getting Started

Install to plotting in five minutes

If you have a working installation of SBCL, Google Chrome and Quicklisp you can be up and running in 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

  • Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL) or CCL
  • MacOS, Linux or Windows 10+
  • Quicklisp
  • Chrome, Firefox or Edge

Loading

First load Lisp-Stat, Plot and sample data. We will use Quicklisp for this, which will both download the system if it isn’t already available, and compile and load it.

Lisp-Stat

(ql:quickload :lisp-stat)
(in-package :ls-user)     ;access to Lisp-Stat functions

Plotting

(ql:quickload :plot/vega)

Data

(data :vgcars)

View

Print the vgcars data-frame (showing the first 25 rows by default)

(print-data vgcars)
;; ORIGIN YEAR       ACCELERATION WEIGHT_IN_LBS HORSEPOWER DISPLACEMENT CYLINDERS MILES_PER_GALLON NAME
;; USA    1970-01-01         12.0          3504        130        307.0         8             18.0 chevrolet chevelle malibu
;; USA    1970-01-01         11.5          3693        165        350.0         8             15.0 buick skylark 320
;; USA    1970-01-01         11.0          3436        150        318.0         8             18.0 plymouth satellite
;; USA    1970-01-01         12.0          3433        150        304.0         8             16.0 amc rebel sst
;; USA    1970-01-01         10.5          3449        140        302.0         8             17.0 ford torino
;; USA    1970-01-01         10.0          4341        198        429.0         8             15.0 ford galaxie 500
;; USA    1970-01-01          9.0          4354        220        454.0         8             14.0 chevrolet impala
;; USA    1970-01-01          8.5          4312        215        440.0         8             14.0 plymouth fury iii
;; USA    1970-01-01         10.0          4425        225        455.0         8             14.0 pontiac catalina
;; USA    1970-01-01          8.5          3850        190        390.0         8             15.0 amc ambassador dpl
;; Europe 1970-01-01         17.5          3090        115        133.0         4 NIL              citroen ds-21 pallas
;; USA    1970-01-01         11.5          4142        165        350.0         8 NIL              chevrolet chevelle concours (sw)
;; USA    1970-01-01         11.0          4034        153        351.0         8 NIL              ford torino (sw)
;; USA    1970-01-01         10.5          4166        175        383.0         8 NIL              plymouth satellite (sw)
;; USA    1970-01-01         11.0          3850        175        360.0         8 NIL              amc rebel sst (sw)
;; USA    1970-01-01         10.0          3563        170        383.0         8             15.0 dodge challenger se
;; USA    1970-01-01          8.0          3609        160        340.0         8             14.0 plymouth 'cuda 340
;; USA    1970-01-01          8.0          3353        140        302.0         8 NIL              ford mustang boss 302
;; USA    1970-01-01          9.5          3761        150        400.0         8             15.0 chevrolet monte carlo
;; USA    1970-01-01         10.0          3086        225        455.0         8             14.0 buick estate wagon (sw)
;; Japan  1970-01-01         15.0          2372         95        113.0         4             24.0 toyota corona mark ii
;; USA    1970-01-01         15.5          2833         95        198.0         6             22.0 plymouth duster
;; USA    1970-01-01         15.5          2774         97        199.0         6             18.0 amc hornet
;; USA    1970-01-01         16.0          2587         85        200.0         6             21.0 ford maverick                 ..

Show the last few rows:

(tail vgcars)
;; ORIGIN YEAR       ACCELERATION WEIGHT_IN_LBS HORSEPOWER DISPLACEMENT CYLINDERS MILES_PER_GALLON NAME
;; USA    1982-01-01         17.3          2950         90          151         4               27 chevrolet camaro
;; USA    1982-01-01         15.6          2790         86          140         4               27 ford mustang gl
;; Europe 1982-01-01         24.6          2130         52           97         4               44 vw pickup
;; USA    1982-01-01         11.6          2295         84          135         4               32 dodge rampage
;; USA    1982-01-01         18.6          2625         79          120         4               28 ford ranger
;; USA    1982-01-01         19.4          2720         82          119         4               31 chevy s-10

Statistics

Look at a few statistics on the data set.

(mean vgcars:acceleration) ; => 15.5197

The summary command, that works in data frames or individual variables, summarises the variable. Below is a summary with some variables elided.

LS-USER> (summary vgcars)

"ORIGIN": 254 (63%) x "USA", 79 (19%) x "Japan", 73 (18%) x "Europe"

"YEAR": 61 (15%) x "1982-01-01", 40 (10%) x "1973-01-01", 36 (9%) x "1978-01-01", 35 (9%) x "1970-01-01", 34 (8%) x "1976-01-01", 30 (7%) x "1975-01-01", 29 (7%) x "1971-01-01", 29 (7%) x "1979-01-01", 29 (7%) x "1980-01-01", 28 (7%) x "1972-01-01", 28 (7%) x "1977-01-01", 27 (7%) x "1974-01-01"

ACCELERATION (1/4 mile time)
 n: 406
 missing: 0
 min=8
 q25=13.67
 q50=15.45
 mean=15.52
 q75=17.17
 max=24.80

WEIGHT-IN-LBS (Weight in lbs)
 n: 406
 missing: 0
 min=1613
 q25=2226
 q50=2822.50
 mean=2979.41
 q75=3620
 max=5140
...

Plot

Create a scatter plot specification comparing horsepower and miles per gallon:

(plot:plot
  (vega:defplot hp-mpg
    `(:title "Horsepower vs. MPG"
      :description "Horsepower vs miles per gallon for various cars"
      :data (:values ,vgcars)
      :mark :point
      :encoding (:x (:field :horsepower :type :quantitative)
	             :y (:field :miles-per-gallon :type :quantitative)))))
Installation

Installing and configuring Lisp-Stat

Site Organisation

How this manual is organised

Getting Help

Ways to get help with Lisp-Stat

Your First Project

How to start your first project


Last modified 18 March 2024: Minor updates, add instructions for ACL (f1d23e9)