[R] 3D histogram

[Lorenz.Gygax@fat.admin.ch]

Hi Tine,

> I have been trying to look for documentation on making a 3D 
> histogram in R (so a histogram on which there are several distributions 
> are plotted), but I cannot find anything on it. Is it possible to
> construct such histograms and should use a special package (f.e. R.Basic)?

In my opinion you should never use 3D graphs. Due to the perspective on
these graphs it is always difficult to compare different values of the
graphed data and usually it is also difficult to get a good estimate of the
actual values as the axes are not always aligned with the data of interst.

You might want to ask yourself whether your data is really as simple that it
can be shown in bars (or could you e.g. rather use boxlplots). If you want
to graph your data as in barplots, you could plot the values of your bars
using points in a 2D diagram and e.g. connect the points that would have
been in one row/column in the 3D diagram.

If you are interested in the graphical presentation of quantitative data, I
can only recommend:

@Book{Tuf:99,
  author = 	 {Tufte, Edward R},
  title = 	 {The Visual Display of Quantitative Information},
  publisher = 	 {Graphic Press},
  year = 	 {1999},
  address = 	 {Cheshire, Connecticut},
  edition = 	 {17th printing}
}

Hope this helps. Lorenz
- 
Lorenz Gygax, Dr. sc. nat.
Tel: +41 (0)52 368 33 84 / lorenz.gygax at fat.admin.ch      

Tag der offenen Tür, 11./12. Juni 2004: http://www.fat.ch/2004

Center for proper housing of ruminants and pigs
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agroscope FAT Tänikon, CH-8356 Ettenhausen / Switzerland
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