R help - Sep 2010 - Alphabetical sequence of data along the x-axis in a box plot

Hello All,

 

I noticed when I generated some boxplots, the data is presented in
alphabetical order along the x-axis (the data in this case was the four
quandrants of a sample area (NE,NW, SE, SW) that was my first column of
data).  Is there a way to have R plot the data in a different order?  I
imagine you could use a dummy variable, but didn't know if there might
be a simple argument  that will address this? 

 

Thanks for any guidance,

Eddie Hughes

 

 


	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Hi Eddie,

I've been on a role with the iris data, so I figure why stop.
Assuming that one variable is a factor, you can easily reverse it, and
if you want fine tuned control, then just reorder the levels.  Here is
an example:

dat <- iris
boxplot(Sepal.Length ~ Species, data = dat)
boxplot(Sepal.Length ~ rev(Species), data = dat)
# They had been ordered alphabetically, now I am changing them
dat$Species <- factor(dat$Species, levels = c("versicolor",
"virginica", "setosa"),
  labels = c("versicolor", "virginica", "setosa"))
boxplot(Sepal.Length ~ Species, data = dat)

Cheers,

Josh

On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 12:59 PM, Hughes, Ed <ehughes at conshelf.com>
wrote:
> Hello All,
>
>
>
> I noticed when I generated some boxplots, the data is presented in
> alphabetical order along the x-axis (the data in this case was the four
> quandrants of a sample area (NE,NW, SE, SW) that was my first column of
> data). ?Is there a way to have R plot the data in a different order? ?I
> imagine you could use a dummy variable, but didn't know if there might
> be a simple argument ?that will address this?
>
>
>
> Thanks for any guidance,
>
> Eddie Hughes
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ? ? ? ?[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org 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.
>


-- 
Joshua Wiley
Ph.D. Student, Health Psychology
University of California, Los Angeles
http://www.joshuawiley.com/

Tena koe Eddie

One way:

eddie <-
data.frame(grp=rep(c('small','medium','large','very
large'), each=20), wgt=rnorm(80, 100, 10))
with(eddie, plot(grp, wgt))
eddie$grp <- factor(eddie$grp,
levels=c('small','medium','large','very large'))
with(eddie, plot(grp, wgt))

HTH ...

Peter Alspach
> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-
> project.org] On Behalf Of Hughes, Ed
> Sent: Tuesday, 28 September 2010 9:00 a.m.
> To: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: [R] Alphabetical sequence of data along the x-axis in a box
> plot
> 
> Hello All,
> 
> 
> 
> I noticed when I generated some boxplots, the data is presented in
> alphabetical order along the x-axis (the data in this case was the four
> quandrants of a sample area (NE,NW, SE, SW) that was my first column of
> data).  Is there a way to have R plot the data in a different order?  I
> imagine you could use a dummy variable, but didn't know if there might
> be a simple argument  that will address this?
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for any guidance,
> 
> Eddie Hughes
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org 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.
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The easiest work-around I've found for this problem is to create a vector in
your data frame just using numbers to order them how you want, create a
separate "labeling" data frame with those numbers and corresponding
text
labels, and then enter the vector with the grouping names from the labeling
frame in boxplot's 'names' argument. As such:


dir <- "D:\\"
setwd(dir)
data <- read.csv("ODR.csv")
type <- read.csv("soil_type.csv")

boxplot(data=data, Sat..ODR~Type_num, *names=type$Soil.type*, col="light
green", main="ODR by soil type", xlab="Soil type",
ylab="ODR")


The labeling data frame should look something like this:
> data.frame(type)
  Type_num Soil.type
1        1       DCL
2        2       UCL
3        3      Sand


Hope this helps!

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