[R] axis label rotation

[Paul Murrell]

Hi


> I recently switch over from Splus to R and I have not been able to
> generate right axis labels that face inwards.  This is accomplished
> in Splus with the command srt=270 but this option is not supported
> in R.  In addition the par argument las=0 or 3 does not rotate the
> right axis labels.


Unfortunately, R's axis() and mtext() functions only listen to par(las) to
determine text rotation (i.e., they ignore par(srt)) and they only choose
between srt=0 and srt=90.  This is actually documented behaviour (see
help(par)), but I doubt that is much help to you :)


> The editor of a journal is demanding that the right axis labels face
> inwards in the figures I recently submitted.  I am really at a loss
> because these editors are inflexible with respect to their in-house
> journal styles.


This is not pretty, but if I have understood correctly it should do what you
want ...

par(xpd=T)  #  so that text() will draw outside of the plotting region
plot(1:10)    # replace this with  your plotting commands
axis(4, labels=F)    # draw axis ticks but no labels
text(rep(11, 5), seq(2,10,2),  seq(2,10,2), srt=270)    # draw tick labels
by hand

... where I have used `rep(11, 5)` for the x-locations of the labels, you
will need to experiment to get the placing right.  You will also need to
replace the `seq(2,10,2)` bits with appropriate y-locations too.  The
problem with the x-locations is that this is trying to locate the text
within the plot margins by specifying x-locations in terms of the user
coordinate system.  As I said, it is not pretty :)

Paul


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