#### 9.2.2 Group Entities ¶

A group entity can contain other entities. Groups can be nested arbitrary deep. To specify a group entity, use curly braces after an entity definition (but before the colon or comma). Between the braces you can list entity definitions, style/color definitions or chart options43. The curly braces open a new scope, so any style or color definition or chart option takes its effect only within the group of entities between the curly braces. See Scoping for more information.

Any entity you specify in the group must be a newly defined entity. It is not possible to place already defined entities into a group. Similar, an already defined entity cannot be made a group entity later by adding entities to it. Nor can a group be later extended with additional entities.

The position of a group entity is derived from its members so the ‘`pos`’ and ‘`relative`’ attributes cannot be used.

Group entities can be collapsed, by setting the ‘`collapsed`’ attribute to yes (or via the GUI on Windows). A collapsed group entity does not show its member entities, but is displayed as a non-grouped entity. Arrows and boxes in the chart are modified (or even removed) to reflect the collapse. If the ‘`indicator`’ attribute of the entity is set to yes, a small indicator is shown both inside the collapsed entity and for each arrow or box removed.

Setting the `large` attribute makes the group entity span the entire height of the chart in the background as opposed to drawing a group entity heading. See the difference below. This is in effect only if the group entity is not collapsed.

#### Footnotes

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Only some of the chart options can be used, the ones that merely change the context and do not draw. E.g. the ‘`background`’ options cannot be used. Practically only the ‘`indicator`’ chart option makes any sense.