[R] Plot symbols: How to plot (and save) a graphic with symbols originating from a table

[Victor F Seabra]

   Dear all,
   Please, I have a doubt regarding symbols plotting
   when the data originates from a table
   (i.e. is not manually fed into the "text" function)
   Please, see below:
   I have a tab delimited file called table1.txt with 4 columns.
   (I wasn't sure on how to attach the table to this post, so I included the
   data below)
   ypos animal var1 var2
   5 cat gina <= lady gina \u2264 lady
   7 dog bill >= tony bill \u2265 tony
   9 fish dude <= bro dude \u2264 bro
   # I load in the data:
   table1<-read.table("table1.txt", header=TRUE, sep="\t")
   #
   # If I take a look at the table
   table1
   # I realize that \u2264 was replaced by \\u2264
   #
   # So, when I plot the data
   plot(1:1,col="white",xlim=c(1,10),ylim=c(1,10),ylab="",axes=FALSE,xlab="")
   text(y=table1$ypos,x=2,table1$animal)
   text(y=table1$ypos,x=4,table1$var1)
   text(y=table1$ypos,x=8,table1$var2)
   #
   # Instead of "<=" or ">=", the text string "\u2265" is plotted
   # This first problem can be fixed by manually erasing the extra "\" on var2
   fix(table1)
   #
   # However, while saving the graph to a ps file, the "<=" sign is replaced by
   "..."
   postscript("graph1.ps", width = 22, height =
   11.5,pointsize=24,paper="special",bg="transparent")
   plot(1:1,col="white",xlim=c(1,10),ylim=c(1,10),ylab="",axes=FALSE,xlab="")
   text(y=table1$ypos,x=2,table1$animal)
   text(y=table1$ypos,x=4,table1$var1)
   text(y=table1$ypos,x=8,table1$var2)
   dev.off()
   #
   #
   # A solution would be to plot "<" or ">" instead of "<=" and ">=" signs
   # and then plot an hifen under the "<" or the ">" sign.
   # This approach fixes both problems, but is hard to do and
   # very difficult to automate
   #
   #Please, does anyone know a better way?
   #thanks in advance
   #
   #Victor Faria Seabra, MD
   #vseabra@ uol.com.br