R help - Nov 2010 - plotting a timeline

I was trying to recreate this kind of timeline plot:
http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelArticles/create-a-timeline.html

As you can see in their excel example, the events are nicely placed out on
both sides of the timeline axis.

AFAIK there is no function to do this nicely in R-project. Furthermore,
graphics and lattice packages are unable to draw the x-axis in the middle of
the plot. (datapoints cannot be plotted below the axis, as in the Excel
example).

My question: Is there a function to draw the x-axis inside the plot? (at a
certain vertical position?) Is there a function for the whole timeline plot
that I do not know about?

I tried to visually replicate the plot using additional elements to create
my own x-axis (code below). I have placed the x-axis ticks on a fixed
y-height (-0.1 and -0.05), but this might look badly with a different
dataset or at other image proportions. I'd rather do this with a dedicated
package function ( like axis() ).

--
mrgomel
-----------------------
Below is my example code in R:


the_data <-
structure(list(eventtime = c(1914L, 1917L, 1918L, 1939L, 1945L,
1963L, 1989L, 2001L, 2003L), impact = c(1, -.5, 0.8, 1, 0.8, 0.5,
-.5, 0.5, 1), label = structure(c(8L, 7L, 4L, 9L, 5L, 2L, 3L,
1L, 6L), .Label = c("9/11", "Cuban crisis", "end of
communism",
"end WW1", "end WW2", "Iraq war", "start of
communism", "WW1",
"WW2"), class = "factor")), .Names =
c("eventtime", "impact",
"label"), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -9L))


plot(the_data$eventtime, the_data$impact, type="h", frame.plot=FALSE,
axes FALSE, xlab="",ylab="", col="grey")
text(the_data$eventtime,the_data$impact, the_data$label)
#axis(1)
abline(h=0,lwd=2)
text(axTicks(1),-0.1, axTicks(1))
points(axTicks(1),rep(-0.05,length(axTicks(1))), type="h")

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2010/11/20 Marcin Gomulka <mrgomel@gmail.com>
> I'd rather do this with a dedicated
>  package function ( like axis() ).

Probably you have to write your own function, or tune up manually plot.

plot(the_data$eventtime, abs(the_data$impact), type="h",
frame.plot=FALSE,
axes FALSE, xlab="",ylab="",
col="grey",lwd=2,ylim=c(-2,2),xlim=c(1913,2005))
text(the_data$eventtime,the_data$impact+.1, the_data$label,cex=.6,adj=1)
lines(x=c(1914,2003),y=c(0,0),lwd=2,col="blue",t="l")
axis(1,the_data$eventtime,pos=0,cex.axis=.5,padj=-2,tck=-.01)
-- 
Mi³ego dnia

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On 2010-11-20 14:26, Marcin Gomulka wrote:
> I was trying to recreate this kind of timeline plot:
> http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelArticles/create-a-timeline.html
>
> As you can see in their excel example, the events are nicely placed out on
> both sides of the timeline axis.
>
> AFAIK there is no function to do this nicely in R-project. Furthermore,
> graphics and lattice packages are unable to draw the x-axis in the middle
of
> the plot. (datapoints cannot be plotted below the axis, as in the Excel
> example).
>
> My question: Is there a function to draw the x-axis inside the plot? (at a
> certain vertical position?) Is there a function for the whole timeline plot
> that I do not know about?
>
> I tried to visually replicate the plot using additional elements to create
> my own x-axis (code below). I have placed the x-axis ticks on a fixed
> y-height (-0.1 and -0.05), but this might look badly with a different
> dataset or at other image proportions. I'd rather do this with a
dedicated
> package function ( like axis() ).
>
It wouldn't be difficult to write such a function.
Here's some code to get you started:

  with(the_data, {
    plot(eventtime, impact, type="h", axes=FALSE,
         ann=FALSE, col="grey", ylim=c(-.7,1.2))
    points(eventtime, impact, pch=95, font=5, cex=2, col=4)
    text(eventtime, impact, label, pos = 1 + 2*(impact > 0))
  })
  abline(h=0, lwd=2)
  axis(1, pos=0, lwd=2, lwd.ticks=1)

Peter Ehlers
> --
> mrgomel
> -----------------------
> Below is my example code in R:
>
>
> the_data<-
> structure(list(eventtime = c(1914L, 1917L, 1918L, 1939L, 1945L,
> 1963L, 1989L, 2001L, 2003L), impact = c(1, -.5, 0.8, 1, 0.8, 0.5,
> -.5, 0.5, 1), label = structure(c(8L, 7L, 4L, 9L, 5L, 2L, 3L,
> 1L, 6L), .Label = c("9/11", "Cuban crisis", "end
of communism",
> "end WW1", "end WW2", "Iraq war", "start
of communism", "WW1",
> "WW2"), class = "factor")), .Names =
c("eventtime", "impact",
> "label"), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -9L))
>
>
> plot(the_data$eventtime, the_data$impact, type="h",
frame.plot=FALSE, axes > FALSE, xlab="",ylab="",
col="grey")
> text(the_data$eventtime,the_data$impact, the_data$label)
> #axis(1)
> abline(h=0,lwd=2)
> text(axTicks(1),-0.1, axTicks(1))
> points(axTicks(1),rep(-0.05,length(axTicks(1))), type="h")
>
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>
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