timeAxis: Label date axis
In berryFunctions: Function Collection Related to Plotting and Hydrology

timeAxis

R Documentation

Label date axis

Description

Labels date axes at sensible intervals in the time domain of weeks to decades.

Usage

timeAxis(
  side = 1,
  timeAxis = NA,
  origin = "1970-01-01",
  startyear = NULL,
  stopyear = NULL,
  n = 5,
  npm = NULL,
  npy = NA,
  format = "%d.%m.\n%Y",
  yformat = "%Y",
  labels = format.Date(d, format),
  ym = FALSE,
  mcex = 0.6,
  mmgp = c(3, 0, 0),
  midyear = FALSE,
  midmonth = FALSE,
  midargs = NULL,
  mgp = c(3, 1.5, 0),
  cex.axis = 1,
  tick = TRUE,
  tcl = par("tcl"),
  las = 1,
  ...
)

Arguments

`side`	Which `axis` are to be labeled? (can be several). DEFAULT: 1
`timeAxis`	Logical indicating whether the axis is `POSIXct`, not date. DEFAULT: NA, meaning axis value >1e5
`origin`	Origin for`as.Date` and `as.POSIXct`. DEFAULT: "1970-01-01"
`startyear`	Integer. starting year. DEFAULT: NULL = internally computed from `par("usr")`
`stopyear`	Ditto for ending year. DEFAULT: NULL
`n`	Approximate number of labels that should be printed (as in `pretty`). DEFAULT: 5
`npm`	Number of labels per month, overrides n. DEFAULT: NULL = internally computed.
`npy`	Number of labels per year, overrides npm and n. DEFAULT: NA
`format`	Format of date, see details in `strptime`. DEFAULT: "%d.%m.\n%Y"
`yformat`	Format of year if `ym=TRUE`. Use `yformat=" "` (with space) to suppress year labeling. DEFAULT: "%Y"
`labels`	labels. DEFAULT: format.Date(d, format)
`ym`	Label months with first letter at the center of the month and year at center below. Sets midyear and midmonth to TRUE. Uses `labels` and `format` for the years, but ignores them for the months. DEFAULT: FALSE
`mcex`	`cex.axis` for month labels if ym=TRUE. DEFAULT: 0.6
`mmgp`	`mgp` for month labels if ym=TRUE. DEFAULT: 3,0,0
`midyear`	Place labels in the middle of the year? if TRUE, format default is "%Y". DEFAULT: FALSE
`midmonth`	Place labels in the middle of the month? if TRUE, format default is "%m\n%Y". DEFAULT: FALSE
`midargs`	List of arguments passed to `axis` for the year-start lines without labels. DEFAULT: NULL
`mgp`	MarGinPlacement, see `par`. The second value is for label distance to axis. DEFAULT: c(3,1.5,0)
`cex.axis`	Character EXpansion (letter size). DEFAULT: 1
`tick`	Draw tick lines? DEFAULT: TRUE
`tcl`	Tick length (negative to go below axis) in text line height units like mgp[2] Changed to -2.5 for year borders if ym=TRUE. DEFAULT: par("tcl")
`las`	LabelAxisStyle for orientation of labels. DEFAULT: 1 (upright)
`...`	Further arguments passed to `axis`, like `lwd, col.ticks, hadj, lty`, ...

Value

The dates that were labeled

Author(s)

Berry Boessenkool, berry-b@gmx.de, Feb 2015, update labels and midyear Dec 2015

Examples


set.seed(007) # for reproducibility
Date1 <- as.Date("2013-09-25")+sort(sample(0:150, 30))
plot(Date1, cumsum(rnorm(30)), type="l", xaxt="n", ann=FALSE)
timeAxis(side=1)
timeAxis(1, npm=2, cex.axis=0.5, col.axis="red") # fix number of labels per month

DateYM <- as.Date("2013-04-25")+0:500
plot(DateYM, cumsum(rnorm(501)), type="l", xaxt="n", ann=FALSE)

monthAxis() # see more examples there - it largely replaces timeAxis!!!

plot(Date1, cumsum(rnorm(30)), type="l", xaxt="n", ann=FALSE)
timeAxis(labels=FALSE, col.ticks=2)
timeAxis(1, format=" ")  # equivalent to axis(labels=FALSE)
timeAxis(1)
d <- timeAxis(1, labels=letters[1:24], mgp=c(3,2.5,0))
d # d covers the full year, thus is longer than n=5

Date2 <- as.Date("2011-07-13")+sort(sample(0:1400, 50))
plot(Date2, cumsum(rnorm(50)), type="l", xaxt="n", ann=FALSE)
timeAxis(npy=12, format=" ")  # fix number of labels per year
timeAxis(tcl=-0.8, lwd.ticks=2, format="%Y/%m", mgp=c(3,1,0))
timeAxis(format="", mgp=c(3,2,0)) # International Date format YYYY-mm-dd

plot(Date2, cumsum(rnorm(50)), type="l", xaxt="n", ann=FALSE)
timeAxis(midyear=TRUE)
abline(v=monthLabs(npm=1), col=8)

Date3 <- as.Date("2011-07-13")+sort(sample(0:1200, 50))
plot(Date3, cumsum(rnorm(50)), type="l", xaxt="n", ann=FALSE)
timeAxis(1, n=4, font=2)
timeAxis(1, col.axis=3) # too many labels with default n=5

monthAxis(side=3) # again: use monthAxis, it is usually nicer!

# mid-year labels:
plot(Date3, cumsum(rnorm(50)), type="l", xaxt="n", ann=FALSE)
timeAxis(midyear=TRUE, midargs=list(tcl=-1.2))

# mid-month labels:
plot(Date1, cumsum(rnorm(30)), type="l", xaxt="n", ann=FALSE)
timeAxis(midmonth=TRUE)

# Time axis instead of date axis:
plot(as.POSIXct(Sys.time()+c(0,10)*24*3600), 1:2, xaxt="n")
timeAxis(n=3)
timeAxis()

berryFunctions documentation built on April 12, 2023, 12:36 p.m.