R help - Nov 2012 - worldmap_region/country problem

Dear R community,

I'm trying to graphically illustrate my data with a worlmap. 
Unfortunately, my data is partly on country basis and partly on regional 
basis (e.g. certain African countries are aggregated to one region). I am 
using the package rwoldmap.

The data on country basis can be mapped, but our defined regions cannot be 
identified in R. Therefore, all the countries in these regions are not 
plotted.
Is there a way to define regions (for example 'Rest of East-Europe') and
to map a combination of these defined regions and individual countries in 
one worldmap?

Is it possible to not display borderlines between some countries but to 
show the borders between others?

Thank you very much for your help!
Anna Fechner

PricewaterhouseCoopers Aktiengesellschaft Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft

Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrates
WP StB Dr. Norbert Vogelpoth

Vorstandsmitglieder
WP StB Prof. Dr. Norbert Winkeljohann · WP StB Dr. Peter Bartels
WP StB CPA Markus Burghardt · StB Prof. Dr. Dieter Endres · WP StB Prof. 
Dr. Georg Kämpfer
WP StB Harald Kayser · WP RA StB Dr. Jan Konerding · WP StB Andreas Menke
StB Marius Möller · WP StB Martin Scholich

Sitz: Frankfurt am Main - Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main HRB 44845

Mitglied von PricewaterhouseCoopers International, einer Company limited 
by guarantee registriert in England und Wales

______________________________________________________________________



Diese Information ist ausschliesslich fuer den Adressaten bestimmt und kann
vertrauliche oder gesetzlich geschuetzte Informationen enthalten. Wenn Sie nicht
der bestimmungsgemaesse Adressat sind, unterrichten Sie bitte den Absender und
vernichten Sie diese Mail. Anderen als dem bestimmungsgemaessen Adressaten ist
es untersagt, diese E-Mail zu lesen, zu speichern, weiterzuleiten oder ihren
Inhalt auf welche Weise auch immer zu verwenden. Wir verwenden aktuelle
Virenschutzprogramme. Fuer Schaeden, die dem Empfaenger gleichwohl durch von uns
zugesandte mit Viren befallene E-Mails entstehen, schliessen wir jede Haftung
aus.
   * * * * *   
The information contained in this email is intended only...{{dropped:15}}

<anna.fechner <at> de.pwc.com> writes:
> 
> Dear R community,
> 
> I'm trying to graphically illustrate my data with a worlmap. 
> Unfortunately, my data is partly on country basis and partly on regional 
> basis (e.g. certain African countries are aggregated to one region). I am 
> using the package rwoldmap.
> 
> The data on country basis can be mapped, but our defined regions cannot be 
> identified in R. Therefore, all the countries in these regions are not 
> plotted.
> Is there a way to define regions (for example 'Rest of
East-Europe') and
> to map a combination of these defined regions and individual countries in 
> one worldmap?
> 
> Is it possible to not display borderlines between some countries but to 
> show the borders between others?
Yes, use gUnaryUnion() in rgeos, or the equivalent unionSpatialPolygons() in
maptools, which calls gUnaryUnion(). These create new, merged polygons, and
should then be associated with the data for the entities you are using. Be
careful not to use gpclib union functions as they are prohibited for commercial
purposes. Please follow up on the R-sig-geo list if need be.

Roger
> 
> Thank you very much for your help!
> Anna Fechner
> 
> PricewaterhouseCoopers Aktiengesellschaft Wirtschaftspr?fungsgesellschaft
>