[R] Rotate values on Y axis

[Marc Schwartz]

On Fri, 2006-06-09 at 14:13 +0100, d d sutcliffe at durham ac uk wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have been working through one of the examples on the FAQ about 
> rotating  the labels on the x axis, I need to do the same but for the y 
> axis. I have managed to change some of the code, but I am still not 
> getting there, there is still something wrong. My syntax is as follows:
> 
> 
>  > par(mar = c(5, 7, 4, 2) + 0.1)
>  > plot(1 : 8, yaxt = "n",  ylab = "")
>  > axis(2, labels = FALSE)
>  > labels <- paste("Label", 1:8, sep = " ")
>  > text(1:8, par("usr")[3] - 0.25, srt = 45, adj = 1,
> +  labels = labels, xpd = TRUE)
> 
> If anybody knows what is wrong then I would appreciate your help...been 
> working on this for far too long already!
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Dan

Dan,

You need to adjust two things:

1. par("usr")[3] is the minimum value of the y axis. You would use this
(as in the FAQ example) when you want to move the text vertically below
the x axis. See ?par for more information.

In your case, you want to move the text to the left of the y axis. Thus
you need to use par("usr")[1] instead, which is the minimum value of the
x axis.


2. In the text call, you are setting the 'x' coordinate to 1:8, which is
why the labels are appearing along the x axis, rather than along the y
axis. So you want to set the y coordinate to 1:8 instead.


So, the adjusted sequence would be:

 par(mar = c(5, 7, 4, 2) + 0.1)
 plot(1 : 8, yaxt = "n",  ylab = "")
 axis(2, labels = FALSE)
 labels <- paste("Label", 1:8, sep = " ")

 text(par("usr")[1] - 0.25, 1:8, srt = 45, adj = 1,
      labels = labels, xpd = TRUE)

HTH,

Marc Schwartz