R help - May 2009 - Rotating x-axis categorical labels

Hello,

I am using barplot to generate a histogram of population by county. I
need to plot the bars for about 35 counties, and would like to rotate
the county name labels on the x-axis to a vertical orientation so that I
can fit them all. An example of my syntax is below:

r.barplot(x,main=main,
xlab=xlab,ylab=ylab,names_arg=counties,axis_lty=1,col="lavender",ylim=r.c(0,100),cex_axis=0.7,cex_names=0.7,offset=0,las=1)

Using "las" rotates the y-axis labels --- how do I rotate the X-axis
labels...?

Thanks, William

On May 15, 2009, at 12:18 PM, Bill Hudspeth wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am using barplot to generate a histogram of population by county. I
> need to plot the bars for about 35 counties, and would like to rotate
> the county name labels on the x-axis to a vertical orientation so  
> that I
> can fit them all. An example of my syntax is below:
>
> r.barplot(x,main=main,
> xlab 
> = 
> xlab 
> ,ylab 
> = 
> ylab 
> ,names_arg 
> = 
> counties 
> ,axis_lty 
> = 
> 1 
> ,col 
>
="lavender",ylim=r.c(0,100),cex_axis=0.7,cex_names=0.7,offset=0,las=1)
>
> Using "las" rotates the y-axis labels --- how do I rotate the
X-axis
> labels...?
>
> Thanks, William

par("las") takes 4 values 0:3. See ?par

Try:

   # Rotate both x and y
   barplot(1:5, names.arg = paste("Bar", 1:5), las = 2)

   # Rotate just x
   barplot(1:5, names.arg = paste("Bar", 1:5), las = 3)


If you want something other than a 90 degree rotation, see:

  
http://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-FAQ.html#How-can-I-create-rotated-axis-labels_003f

HTH,

Marc Schwartz