All of these suggestions are great.  Let me add one other dimension.  Suppose I want to add curly quotations, italicize, underline, or bold some of the words.  I can get this to work:

plot(-15:15,15:-15, pch=NA)
text(x=0, y=5, 
	expression(bold(This)~is~a~underline(test)^1~of~the~italic(Emergency)~Broadcast~System.))
	

I can also get this to work:

text(x=0, y=-5, dQuote("This is another test."))

But, I've wrestled getting curly quotes to work within expression().  

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.  

-Brian

On Aug 20, 2012, at 2:30 PM, Peter Ehlers wrote:

> On 2012-08-20 12:27, William Dunlap wrote:
>> paste() is ok, but it must be enclosed in expression(),
>> just like the case that worked.
>> 
>> plot(-15:15,15:-15)
>> text(x=5, y=4.5, expression(test^1) )
>> text(x=1, y=11, expression(paste("This is a ", test^1, " of the Emergency Broadcast System.")))
>> 
>> plotmath only works on expressions, not on the strings
>> that a call to paste would produce.
> 
> It's a matter of paste, of course (whoops, I mean a matter of _t_aste),
> but I agree with David that, in plotmath situations, paste() is often
> not the best way to proceed, especially in view of the fact that
> plotmath's paste() doesn't recognize the 'sep=' argument; this often
> confounds useRs.
> In the above, example, I would prefer to use concatenation of the
> string pieces with either '~' (a space) or '*` (no space):
> 
>  text(x=1, y=11, expression("This is a" ~ test^1 ~ "of the
>          Emergency Broadcast System."))
> 
> or
> 
>  text(x=1, y=11, expression("This is a " * test^1 * " of the
>          Emergency Broadcast System."))
> 
> If one is going to use plotmath expressions frequently, then these
> two handy little symbols are worth knowing.
> 
> Peter Ehlers
> 
>> 
>> 
>> Bill Dunlap
>> Spotfire, TIBCO Software
>> wdunlap tibco.com
>> 
>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: r-help-bounces@r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces@r-project.org] On Behalf
>>> Of David Winsemius
>>> Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 12:15 PM
>>> To: Brian Kriegler
>>> Cc: r-help@r-project.org
>>> Subject: Re: [R] Inserting superscripts in free-format text line
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Aug 20, 2012, at 11:35 AM, Brian Kriegler wrote:
>>> 
>>>> I would like to insert a superscript in a body of text (e.g., a
>>>> title or axis label), where the superscript is not necessarily at
>>>> the end of the text.  For example, suppose a title read, "This is a
>>>> Test^1 of the Emergency Broadcast System" where there is a
>>>> superscript 1 after the word Test.
>>>> 
>>>> As a starting point for what I'm trying to do, the following shows a
>>>> superscript:
>>>> x=10
>>>> plot(x)
>>>> text(x=1, y=12, expression("test"^1)
>>> 
>>> Not on my device. No closing paren.
>>> 
>>> Why not:
>>> 
>>> plot(1:10)
>>> text(x=5, y=4.5, expression(test^1) )
>>> 
>>> You do not need quotes in plotmath expressions unless they are
>>> reserved plotmath function names. People reach for paste() in far too
>>> many situations.
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> But, the following does not show a superscript:
>>>> x=10
>>>> plot(x)
>>>> text(x=1, y=11, paste("This is a", expression("test"^1), "of the
>>>> Emergency Broadcast System.")
>>> 
>>> And why not:
>>> 
>>>   expression(This~is~a~test^1~of~the~Emergency~Broadcast~System.)
>>> 
>>>> 
>>> --
>>> 
>>> David Winsemius, MD
>>> Alameda, CA, USA
>>> 
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help@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.
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help@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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