[R] pie graphic

Julien Barnier jbarnier at ens-lsh.fr
Mon Apr 7 14:09:10 CEST 2008


Hi,

> I have many data to plot as pie-chart, so the labels are not readable!
> Is there a way to solve my problem? For example is it possible move the
> labels more far to the graphic?

I'm afraid I can't really answer your question. But in the pie
function documentation, you can read the following :

,----
| Pie charts are a very bad way of displaying information. The eye
| is good at judging linear measures and bad at judging relative
| areas.  A bar chart or dot chart is a preferable way of displaying
| this type of data.
| 
| Cleveland (1985), page 264: "Data that can be shown by pie charts
| always can be shown by a dot chart.  This means that judgements of
| position along a common scale can be made instead of the less
| accurate angle judgements." This statement is based on the
| empirical investigations of Cleveland and McGill as well as
| investigations by perceptual psychologists.
`----

So an alternative could be to use dotchart() instead of pie().

HTH,

Julien

-- 
Julien Barnier
Groupe de recherche sur la socialisation
ENS-LSH - Lyon, France



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