Today's SAS Tech Report E-Newsletter highlighted the Needle Plot using SGPLOT.  In my endless pursuit of looking at ways to display information in different ways, I thought this was a particularly helpful code snippet to add to my library. 

Use this code:

/* This sample creates a needle plot with overlaid lines. */

/* Define a format to order the horizontal axis and
the format for the values on the vertical axis. */
proc format;
value matfmt
1='1 mo'
2='3 mo'
3='6 mo'
6='1 yr'
7='2 yr'
8='3 yr'
9='5 yr'
11='10 yr '
14='30 yr';
picture yldfmt
low-high='9%';
run;

/* Create sample data. */
data yield;
input matcur yldcur mat1mo yld1mo mat1yr yld1yr;
label yldcur='January 2008' yld1mo = 'December 2007' yld1yr = 'January 2007';
format mat1yr matfmt. mat1mo matfmt. matcur matfmt.
yldcur yldfmt. yld1mo yldfmt. yld1yr yldfmt.;
datalines;
1 2.63 1 2.76 1 4.97
2 2.86 2 3.04 2 5.12
3 2.86 3 3.37 3 5.16
6 2.69 6 3.31 6 5.07
7 2.36 7 3.19 7 4.89
8 2.39 8 3.2 8 4.8
9 2.86 9 3.53 9 4.75
11 4.3 11 4.6 11 4.94
14 4.28 14 4.55 14 4.85
;
run;

title 'Government Bond Yield Curve';
title2 ' ';

ods listing style=ocean ;

/* Create the graph with the SGPLOT procedure. Each SERIES statement
produces a line and the NEEDLE statement produces the needle in the graph. */
proc sgplot data=yield cycleattrs;
series x=mat1yr y=yld1yr / markers
markerattrs=(symbol=circlefilled size=10px)
lineattrs=(pattern=solid) name='n1';
series x=mat1mo y=yld1mo / markers
markerattrs=(symbol=circlefilled size=10px)
lineattrs=(pattern=solid) name='n2';
series x=matcur y=yldcur / markers
markerattrs=(symbol=circlefilled size=10px)
lineattrs=(pattern=solid) name='n3';
needle x=matcur y=yldcur / lineattrs=graphreferenence;
yaxis grid label='Bond Yield';
xaxis type=linear values=(1 2 3 6 7 8 9 11 14) label='Bond Maturity';
keylegend 'n1' 'n2' 'n3' / position=top noborder;
run;
title;
title2;

To create this graph: