[R] dotchart to barplots

Greg Snow Greg.Snow at imail.org
Wed Sep 23 21:48:33 CEST 2009


The current recommendation is to not put designs/hash lines/pictures/etc. into the bars, but to use a single solid color (gray in your case).  Back when a quality graph meant using a pen plotter, hash lines made sense as a way to distinguish between bars, but quality graphics no longer depend on pen plotters (I don't remember the last time I actually saw one) and hash lines can cause what is called the Moire effect or Moire vibrations (there should be an accent on the 'e'), which distorts the effects of the graph and can even cause nausea in the viewer.  Other patterns in the bars runs the risk of causing other optical illusions and distorting the true content of the graph.

-- 
Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D.
Statistical Data Center
Intermountain Healthcare
greg.snow at imail.org
801.408.8111


> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-
> project.org] On Behalf Of Nair, Murlidharan T
> Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 1:21 PM
> To: Henrique Dallazuanna
> Cc: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R] dotchart to barplots
> 
> I had tried names.arg=c(intersect.data[,1]) so that was the problem.
> That solves part of what need. I there a way to rotate how it is
> written on the y-axis?  Also, use designs instead of gray scale and
> making keys for it?
> Thanks for chipping in.
> Cheers../Murli
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Henrique Dallazuanna [mailto:wwwhsd at gmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 3:09 PM
> To: Nair, Murlidharan T
> Cc: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R] dotchart to barplots
> 
> Try this:
> 
> barplot(t(as.matrix(intersect.data[,2:5])),
>           beside = T, horiz = T,
>           names.arg = intersect.data[,1], cex.axis = 0.7, cex.names =
> 0.7)
> 
> On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 4:01 PM, Nair, Murlidharan T <mnair at iusb.edu>
> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am trying to plot the following data so that it can be visually
> represented well. I tried the dotchart but I felt it was too spread
> out. Then I tried the barplot which is good enough for me. Is there a
> way to give the labels for the y-axis as in the dot chart? Also, I feel
> the grey level is confusing, so is there options for designs within the
> bars? I cannot use color as the journal wants it in black and white.  I
> also need to specify the key. If someone has done it, I would
> appreciate your input.
> > Cheers../Murli
> >
> >
> > intersect.data<-structure(list(X = structure(c(1L, 3L, 8L, 9L, 10L,
> 11L, 12L,
> > 13L, 14L, 15L, 2L, 4L, 5L, 6L, 7L), .Label = c("1-100", "1001-1100",
> > "101-200", "1101-1200", "1201-1300", "1301-1400", "1401-1532",
> > "201-300", "301-400", "401-500", "501-600", "601-700", "701-800",
> > "801-900", "901-1000"), class = "factor"), MCM.Cell.vs.MCM.Tumor =
> c(6L,
> > 7L, 12L, 9L, 13L, 7L, 11L, 4L, 8L, 11L, 11L, 12L, 4L, 15L, 28L
> > ), Ttest.Tumor.vs.Ttest.Cell = c(4L, 2L, 7L, 9L, 8L, 10L, 4L,
> > 7L, 8L, 7L, 5L, 7L, 4L, 5L, 9L), Ttest.Cell.vs.MCM.Cell = c(66L,
> > 22L, 14L, 7L, 11L, 6L, 12L, 7L, 9L, 8L, 7L, 9L, 9L, 5L, 20L),
> >    Ttest.Tumor.vs.MCM.Tumor = c(31L, 18L, 8L, 12L, 5L, 8L, 5L,
> >    8L, 9L, 8L, 10L, 12L, 13L, 8L, 18L)), .Names = c("X",
> "MCM.Cell.vs.MCM.Tumor",
> > "Ttest.Tumor.vs.Ttest.Cell", "Ttest.Cell.vs.MCM.Cell",
> "Ttest.Tumor.vs.MCM.Tumor"
> > ), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -15L))
> >
> > dotchart(as.matrix(intersect.data[-1]), labels=intersect.data[,1],
> cex=0.5, gpch=70)
> >
> > barplot(t(as.matrix(intersect.data[,2:5])), beside=T, horiz=T)
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-
> guide.html
> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> >
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Henrique Dallazuanna
> Curitiba-Paraná-Brasil
> 25° 25' 40" S 49° 16' 22" O
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-
> guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.




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