R help - Feb 2015 - [BUG] or [undocumented] boxplot - horizontal swaps ylim and xlim

When using the function boxplot() together with the argument

,----
| horizontal = TRUE
`----

xlim and ylim become swapped, i.e. ylim refers to the x-axis instead of
the y-axis:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
x <- runif(1000)
boxplot(x)
boxplot(
   x,
   ylim = c(0.2, 0.8)
   )
boxplot(
   x,
   ylim = c(0.2, 0.8),
   horizontal=TRUE
   )
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

This is either a bug or undocumented.

Cheers,

Rainer

-- 
Rainer M. Krug
email: Rainer<at>krugs<dot>de
PGP: 0x0F52F982
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> When using the function boxplot() together with the argument
> | horizontal = TRUE
> xlim and ylim become swapped, i.e. ylim refers to the x-axis instead of the
y-
> axis:
It is neither a bug nor undocumented, though the documentation is a not in
?boxplot (because xlim and ylim aren't defined there) and is also tad
unclear in the present version.

For boxplot and its methods, xlim and ylim fall into '...', which is (as
documented) passed to bxp (see boxplot.default).
?bxp, says:

"pars,...: graphical parameters (etc) can be passed as arguments to this
          function, either as a list ('pars') or
normally('...'), see
          the following.  (Those in '...' take precedence over those in
          'pars'.)

          Currently, 'yaxs' and 'ylim' are used 'along the
boxplot',
          i.e., vertically, when 'horizontal' is false, and
'xlim'
          horizontally.  'xaxt', 'yaxt', 'las',
'cex.axis', and
          'col.axis' are passed to 'axis', and 'main',
'cex.main',
          'col.main', 'sub', 'cex.sub',
'col.sub', 'xlab', 'ylab',
          'cex.lab', and 'col.lab' are passed to
'title'."

The key phrase is "Currently, 'yaxs' and 'ylim' are used
'along the boxplot',"

S Ellison



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S Ellison <S.Ellison at LGCGroup.com> writes:
>> When using the function boxplot() together with the argument
>> | horizontal = TRUE
>> xlim and ylim become swapped, i.e. ylim refers to the x-axis instead of
the y-
>> axis:
>
> It is neither a bug nor undocumented, though the documentation is a
> not in ?boxplot (because xlim and ylim aren't defined there) and is
> also tad unclear in the present version.
>
> For boxplot and its methods, xlim and ylim fall into '...', which
is
> (as documented) passed to bxp (see boxplot.default).
> ?bxp, says:
>
> "pars,...: graphical parameters (etc) can be passed as arguments to
this
>           function, either as a list ('pars') or
normally('...'), see
>           the following.  (Those in '...' take precedence over
those in
>           'pars'.)
>
>           Currently, 'yaxs' and 'ylim' are used 'along
the boxplot',
>           i.e., vertically, when 'horizontal' is false, and
'xlim'
>           horizontally.  'xaxt', 'yaxt', 'las',
'cex.axis', and
>           'col.axis' are passed to 'axis', and
'main', 'cex.main',
>           'col.main', 'sub', 'cex.sub',
'col.sub', 'xlab', 'ylab',
>           'cex.lab', and 'col.lab' are passed to
'title'."
>
> The key phrase is "Currently, 'yaxs' and 'ylim' are
used 'along the boxplot',"
Thanks for clarifying this.

I think this should be mentioned in boxplot as well.

Cheers,

Rainer
>
> S Ellison
>
>
>
> *******************************************************************
> This email and any attachments are confidential. Any u...{{dropped:24}}