[R] How to plot a legend centered only on the x axis

[Jim Lemon]

Hi Antonio,
First you want the center of the plot:

xylim<-par("usr")
x_center<-sum(xylim[1:2])/2

Then as you want to have you legend above the plot:

# you will probably want to change the "20" to your preference
y_bottom<-xylim[4]+diff(xylim[3:4])/20

then:

legend(x_center,ybottom,...xjust=0.5,yjust=0)

Jim

On Fri, May 12, 2017 at 4:36 AM, Antonio Silva <aolinto.lst at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello r-users
>
> I want to plot some barplots inside a looping with the legend placed
> outside the plotting area.
>
> No matter the number of bars I want the legend to be placed centered on the
> x-axis.
>
> See the example below
>
> for(i in 1:10) {
> var_1 <- sample(1000:100000,sample(3:8,1))
> ymax <- max(var_1)
> b<-barplot(var_1,col="blue")
> var_2 <- sample(1000:ymax,length(var_1))
> lines(rowSums(b),var_2,type="o",col="red",pch=16)
> par(xpd=TRUE)
> legend(*1.1*
> ,ymax*-0.072,c("var_1","var_2"),horiz=T,cex=1.3,bty="n",pch=c(15,16),col=c("blue","red"),lty=c(0,1),lwd=c(0,2),pt.cex=2)
> readline(prompt="Press [enter] to continue")
> }
>
> What I should use as x position in legend(x,y, ...), instead of *1.1*, to
> have the legend centered on the x-axis?
>
> I would love to use something like legend(x="center",y=ymax*-0.072, ... but
> it did not worked.
>
> I appreciate any suggestions. Best regards.
>
> Antonio
>
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