[R] 3D histogram

[Peter Flom]

I agree with Lorenz, but would add a couple other recommended books:

Cleveland, WS (1994) The Elements of Graphing Data 

and

Cleveland WS (1993) Visualizing Data.

both are pub. by Hobart Press, in Summit NJ, USA

I think the problem with 3 D graphics (at least for me) is that not only can they obscure patterns that exist, they can sometimes show patterns that do NOT exist.  Not a good deal  But others may be better at using them than I

HTH

Peter

Lorenz.Gygax at fat.admin.ch wrote:

>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 
>
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Peter L. Flom, PhD
Assistant Director, Statistics and Data Analysis Core
Center for Drug Use and HIV Research
National Development and Research Institutes
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