R help - Jul 2012 - Boxplot names

When i make Boxplots with a lot of boxes, the names of them get only written
down every second "column".
Since they aren't in any way ordered, you don't see anymore to what they
belong.

example:

l<-rep(list(1:5),20); boxplot(l,names=sample(20,1:20))

Is there a way to show them all, or do i have to split the plots?
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On 2012-07-19 06:58, Jessica Streicher wrote:
> When i make Boxplots with a lot of boxes, the names of them get only
written down every second "column".
> Since they aren't in any way ordered, you don't see anymore to what
they belong.
>
> example:
>
> l<-rep(list(1:5),20); boxplot(l,names=sample(20,1:20))
>
> Is there a way to show them all, or do i have to split the plots?
[Actually, your example is not reproducible without error - see
?sample.]

Two solutions:
1. use the cex.axis argument to reduce the label size.
2. check out the staxlab() function in the plotrix package.

Peter Ehlers

> When i make Boxplots with a lot of boxes, the names of them 
> get only written down every second "column".
> Since they aren't in any way ordered, you don't see anymore 
> to what they belong.
Jessica,

Another possibility if the names are long is to use abbreviated factor levels.
The labels appear when there is room; they are only omitted if there isn't
space. So you could use  something like

y <- rnorm(55)
g <- factor(paste("Unduly long factor level name", rep(1:5,
each=11)))

boxplot(y~g) #Not useful

ga <- g
levels(ga) <- abbreviate(levels(g))
boxplot(y~ga) #Much better

If you don't want to change the actual factor level labels, use something
like

boxplot(y~g, axes=FALSE, at=1:nlevels(g))
box()
axis(2)
axis(1, at=1:nlevels(g), labels=abbreviate(levels(g)))
# or 
axis(1, at=1:nlevels(g), labels=abbreviate(levels(g)), las=2) #vertical text


S Ellison

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