R help - Jul 2006 - Overplotting: plot() invocation looks ugly ... suggestions?

Hi WizaRds,

I'd like to overplot UK fuel consumption per quarter over the course of five
years.
Sounds simple enough?

Unless I'm missing something, the following seems very involved for what
I'm trying to do. Any suggestions on simplifications?

The way I did it is awkward mainly because of the first call to plot ... but
isn't this necessary, especially to set limits for the plot?

The second call to plot(), in conjunction with by(), seems to be natural enough,
and, IMHO, seems to be readable and succinct.

    data<- read.table(textConnection("Year    Quarter        Consumption
    1965    1        874
    1965    2        679
    1965    3        616
    1965    4        816

    1966    1        866
    1966    2        700
    1966    3        603
    1966    4        814

    1967    1        843
    1967    2        719
    1967    3        594
    1967    4        819

    1968    1        906
    1968    2        703
    1968    3        634
    1968    4        844

    1969    1        952
    1969    2        745
    1969    3        635
    1969    4        871"), header=TRUE)
    data$Quarter<- as.factor(data$Quarter)
    #
    # what follows is only marginally less involved than using a for loop 
    # (the culprit is, in part, the need to make the first, type="n",
call to plot()):
    windows(width=12,height=6)
    with(data, plot(levels(Quarter), Consumption[Year==Year[1]],
ylim=c(min(Consumption), max(Consumption)), type="n"))
    with(data, by(Consumption, Year, function(x) lines(levels(Quarter), x,
type="o")))

Thanks,

Jack.


 		
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Try:

matplot(levels(data$Quarter), matrix(data$Consumption, 4), type = "o")


On 7/24/06, John McHenry <john_d_mchenry at yahoo.com>
wrote:
> Hi WizaRds,
>
> I'd like to overplot UK fuel consumption per quarter over the course of
five years.
> Sounds simple enough?
>
> Unless I'm missing something, the following seems very involved for
what I'm trying to do. Any suggestions on simplifications?
>
> The way I did it is awkward mainly because of the first call to plot ...
but isn't this necessary, especially to set limits for the plot?
>
> The second call to plot(), in conjunction with by(), seems to be natural
enough, and, IMHO, seems to be readable and succinct.
>
>    data<- read.table(textConnection("Year    Quarter       
Consumption
>    1965    1        874
>    1965    2        679
>    1965    3        616
>    1965    4        816
>
>    1966    1        866
>    1966    2        700
>    1966    3        603
>    1966    4        814
>
>    1967    1        843
>    1967    2        719
>    1967    3        594
>    1967    4        819
>
>    1968    1        906
>    1968    2        703
>    1968    3        634
>    1968    4        844
>
>    1969    1        952
>    1969    2        745
>    1969    3        635
>    1969    4        871"), header=TRUE)
>    data$Quarter<- as.factor(data$Quarter)
>    #
>    # what follows is only marginally less involved than using a for loop
>    # (the culprit is, in part, the need to make the first,
type="n", call to plot()):
>    windows(width=12,height=6)
>    with(data, plot(levels(Quarter), Consumption[Year==Year[1]],
ylim=c(min(Consumption), max(Consumption)), type="n"))
>    with(data, by(Consumption, Year, function(x) lines(levels(Quarter), x,
type="o")))
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jack.
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Groups are talking. We?re listening. Check out the handy changes to Yahoo!
Groups.
>        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

Hello,

I would like to make a question regarding the use of a grey background
(by ggplot in this case, but also in other settings - I seem to
remember a relevant lattice discussion). It seems that it is generally
discouraged by journals. I guess one practical reason is that it makes
photocopying difficult (in the sense that it may lead to low contrast
situations). It might have to do with printing costs, as it leads to
higher coverage of the page, but I do not know about that.

[Disclaimer: it does look nice, though.]

Any comments?

Thanks,

Costas

On 7/26/06, hadley wickham <h.wickham at gmail.com>
wrote:
> > And if lattice is ok then try this:
> >
> > library(lattice)
> > xyplot(Consumption ~ Quarter, group = Year, data, type =
"o")
>
> Or you can use ggplot:
>
> install.packages("ggplot")
> library(ggplot)
> qplot(Quarter, Consumption,
data=data,type=c("point","line"), id=data$Year)
>
> Unfortunately this has uncovered a couple of small bugs for me to fix
> (no automatic legend, and have to specify the data frame explicitly)
>
> The slighly more verbose example below shows you what it should look like.
>
> data$Year <- factor(data$Year)
> p <- ggplot(data, aes=list(x=Quarter, y=Consumption, id=Year,
colour=Year))
> ggline(ggpoint(p), size=2)
>
> Regards,
>
> Hadley
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

Constantinos Antoniou skreiv:
> I would like to make a question regarding the use of a grey background
> (by ggplot in this case, but also in other settings - I seem to
> remember a relevant lattice discussion). It seems that it is generally
> discouraged by journals. I guess one practical reason is that it makes
> photocopying difficult (in the sense that it may lead to low contrast
> situations). It might have to do with printing costs, as it leads to
> higher coverage of the page, but I do not know about that.
> 
> [Disclaimer: it does look nice, though.]
>
> Any comments?
Just a small one: The grey background used by ggplot does look nice;
the one used by earlier versions of lattice did not. All IMHO, of course.

-- 
Karl Ove Hufthammer
E-mail and Jabber: karl at huftis.org