R help - Mar 2013 - get current plot dimensions?

Hi R users,

I find par("pin") is kind of confusing (or maybe just me?). The manual
said
it will give " The current plot dimensions, ‘(width,height)’, in
inches."
The word "current" is the key here. I thought it would give the
dimensions
of the to-be plot, but it actually gives the dimension of the finished plot:
> layout(matrix(c(1,2,3,4), nrow=2), width=c(1,3), height=c(1,3))
> par("pin")
[1] 4.216666 3.721324
> plot(x)
> par("pin")
[1] 0.7194221 0.2223079
> plot(x)
> par("pin")
[1] 0.7194221 3.7213237
> plot(x)
> par("pin")
[1] 4.2166662 0.2223079
> plot(x)

So, if par("pin") doesn't give to-be plot, how can I get its
dimension?

Thanks,
Zech

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Try using the combination
   plot.new() ; par(new=TRUE)
to advance to the next position in the layout before querying
par("pin").
Be sure to actually plot something after the par(new=TRUE).

E.g.,
> layout(matrix(c(1,2,3,4), nrow=2), width=c(1,3), height=c(1,3))
> plot.new() ; par(new=TRUE)
> par("pin")
[1] 0.6624667 0.1623834
> plot(10:19, main="One")
> par("pin")
[1] 0.6624667 0.1623834
> 
> plot.new() ; par(new=TRUE)
> par("pin")
[1] 0.6624667 3.5415500
> plot(20:29, main="Two")
> par("pin")
[1] 0.6624667 3.5415500


Bill Dunlap
Spotfire, TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at
r-project.org] On Behalf
> Of Not To Miss
> Sent: Friday, March 08, 2013 5:12 PM
> To: r-help
> Subject: [R] get current plot dimensions?
> 
> Hi R users,
> 
> I find par("pin") is kind of confusing (or maybe just me?). The
manual said
> it will give " The current plot dimensions, '(width,height)',
in inches."
> The word "current" is the key here. I thought it would give the
dimensions
> of the to-be plot, but it actually gives the dimension of the finished
plot:
> 
> > layout(matrix(c(1,2,3,4), nrow=2), width=c(1,3), height=c(1,3))
> > par("pin")
> [1] 4.216666 3.721324
> > plot(x)
> > par("pin")
> [1] 0.7194221 0.2223079
> > plot(x)
> > par("pin")
> [1] 0.7194221 3.7213237
> > plot(x)
> > par("pin")
> [1] 4.2166662 0.2223079
> > plot(x)
> 
> 
> So, if par("pin") doesn't give to-be plot, how can I get its
dimension?
> 
> Thanks,
> Zech
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]