radial.plot: Plot values on a circular grid of 0 to 2*pi radians

In plotrix: Various Plotting Functions

Plot values on a circular grid of 0 to 2*pi radians

Description

Plot numeric values as distances from the center of a circular field in the directions defined by angles in radians.

Usage

 radial.plot(lengths,radial.pos=NULL,labels=NA,label.pos=NULL,radlab=FALSE,
 start=0,clockwise=FALSE,rp.type="r",label.prop=1.1,main="",xlab="",ylab="",
 line.col=par("fg"),lty=par("lty"),lwd=par("lwd"),mar=c(2,2,3,2),
 show.grid=TRUE,show.grid.labels=4,show.radial.grid=TRUE,rad.col="gray",
 grid.col="gray",grid.bg="transparent",grid.left=FALSE,grid.unit=NULL,
 point.symbols=1,point.col=par("fg"),show.centroid=FALSE,radial.lim=NULL,
 radial.labels=NULL,boxed.radial=TRUE,poly.col=NA,add=FALSE,
 loglen=FALSE,explab=FALSE,...)

Arguments

lengths	A numeric data vector or matrix. If ‘⁠lengths⁠’ is a matrix, the rows will be considered separate data vectors.
radial.pos	A numeric vector or matrix of positions in radians. These are interpreted as beginning at the right (0 radians) and moving counterclockwise. If ‘⁠radial.pos⁠’ is a matrix, the rows must correspond to rows of ‘⁠lengths⁠’.
labels	Character strings to be placed at the outer ends of the lines. If set to NULL, will suppress printing of labels, but if missing, the radial positions will be used.
label.pos	The positions of the labels around the plot in radians.
radlab	Whether to rotate the outer labels to a radial orientation.
start	Where to place the starting (zero) point. Defaults to the 3 o'clock position.
clockwise	Whether to interpret positive positions as clockwise from the starting point. The default is counterclockwise.
rp.type	Whether to draw (r)adial lines, a (p)olygon, (s)ymbols, (t)ext, or some combination of these. If ‘⁠lengths⁠’ is a matrix and rp.type is a vector, each row of ‘⁠lengths⁠’ can be displayed differently.
label.prop	The label position radius as a proportion of the maximum line length.
main	The title for the plot.
xlab,ylab	Normally x and y axis labels are suppressed.
line.col	The color of the radial lines or polygons drawn.
lty	The line type(s) to be used for polygons or radial lines.
lwd	The line width(s) to be used for polygons or radial lines.
mar	Margins for the plot. Allows the user to leave space for legends, long labels, etc.
show.grid	Logical - whether to draw a circular grid.
show.grid.labels	Whether and where to display labels for the grid - see Details.
show.radial.grid	Whether to draw radial lines to the plot labels.
rad.col	Color of the radial lines on the grid.
grid.col	Color of the circumferential lines on the grid.
grid.bg	Fill color of above.
grid.left	Whether to place the radial grid labels on the left side.
grid.unit	Optional unit description for the grid.
point.symbols	The symbols for plotting (as in pch) or if ‘⁠rp.type⁠’ is "t", the text that will be displayed.
point.col	Colors for the symbols.
show.centroid	Whether to display a centroid.
radial.lim	The range of the grid circle. Defaults to ‘⁠pretty(range(lengths))⁠’, but if more than two values are passed, the exact values will be displayed.
radial.labels	Optional labels for the radial grid. The default is the values of radial.lim, or if loglen is TRUE, the corresponding log values.
boxed.radial	Whether to use boxed.labels or text for radial labels.
poly.col	Fill color if polygons are drawn. Use NA for no fill.
add	Whether to add one or more series to an existing plot.
loglen	Whether to log transform the ‘⁠length⁠’ values. Only base 10 logs are available. Keep in mind that the values actually plotted will be the logarithms, although the exponentiated logs are displayed.
explab	Whether to use the default fixed (FALSE) or exponential (TRUE) notation for the radial labels.
...	Additional arguments are passed to ‘⁠plot⁠’.

Details

‘⁠radial.plot⁠’ displays a plot of radial lines, polygon(s), symbols, text or a combination of these centered at the midpoint of the plot frame, the lengths, vertices or positions corresponding to the numeric magnitudes of the data values. Note that if log transformation is requested with ‘⁠loglen⁠’, the values plotted will be the logs, not the values displayed on the plot. If ‘⁠show.centroid⁠’ is TRUE, an enlarged point at the centroid of values is displayed. The centroid is calculated as the average of x and y values unless ‘⁠rp.type="p"⁠’. In this case, the barycenter of the polygon is calculated. Make sure that these suit your purpose, otherwise calculate the centroid that you really want and add it with the ‘⁠points⁠’ function. Note that if the observations are not taken at equal intervals around the circle, the centroid may not mean much.

The ‘⁠text⁠’ option for ‘⁠rp.type⁠’ allows the user to place text at each point. It is useful for adding labels at arbitrary points on an existing plot or perhaps labelling points with letters or digits rather than different symbols. See the last example.

If the user wants to plot several sets of lines, points or symbols by passing matrices or data frames of ‘⁠lengths⁠’ and ‘⁠radial.pos⁠’, remember that these will be grouped by row, so transpose if the data are grouped by columns.

If more series are added to an existing plot, ‘⁠radial.plot⁠’ will try to maintain the current plot parameters. Resetting the parameters after doing the initial plot will almost certainly mess up any series that are added. Series that are added will be plotted "on top" of the existing plot, possibly overplotting other things. If the added series have a larger range than the initial series, set ‘⁠radial.lim⁠’ to account for this in the initial plot, and if ‘⁠radial.lim⁠’ is specified in the initial plot, remember to repeat it for added series as in the example.

The size of the labels on the outside of the plot can be adjusted by setting ‘⁠par(cex.axis=)⁠’ and that of the labels inside by setting ‘⁠par(cex.lab=)⁠’. If ‘⁠radlab⁠’ is TRUE, the labels will be rotated to a radial alignment. This may help when there are many values and labels. If some labels are still crowded, try running ‘⁠label.pos⁠’ through the ‘⁠spreadout⁠’ function. If the ‘⁠show.grid.labels⁠’ argument is a number from 1 to 4, the labels will be placed along a horizontal or vertical radius. The numbers represent the same positions as in ‘⁠axis⁠’, with the default (4) on the right.

The radial.plot family of plots is useful for illustrating cyclic data such as wind direction or speed (but see ‘⁠oz.windrose⁠’ for both), activity at different times of the day, and so on. While ‘⁠radial.plot⁠’ actually does the plotting, another function is usually called for specific types of cyclic data.

Value

The ‘⁠par⁠’ values that are changed in the function as they were at the time ‘⁠radial.plot⁠’ was called.

Note

Thanks to Jeremy Claisse and Antonio Hernandez Matias for the ‘⁠lty⁠’ and ‘⁠rp.type⁠’ suggestions respectively

Patrick Baker for the request that led to ‘⁠radlab⁠’

Thomas Steiner for the request for the ‘⁠radial.lim⁠’ and ‘⁠radial.labels⁠’ modifications

Evan Daugharty for requesting the ‘⁠add⁠’ argument

James MacCarthy for requesting better radial labels

Steve Ellison for noticing that the return values of the functions had changed

Don Dennerline for requesting the rank clock

Mehdi Nellen for the different colors for the radial and circumferential lines for the grid

Mayeul Kauffmann for noticing the radial label bug when a separate radial.grid was included

Ogbos Okike for requesting a text option for rp.type

Keziah Conroy for requesting the log option

Author(s)

Jim Lemon

See Also

polar.plot,clock24.plot

Examples

 testlen<-runif(10,0,10)
 testpos<-seq(0,18*pi/10,length=10)
 testlab<-letters[1:10]
 oldpar<-radial.plot(testlen,testpos,main="Test Radial Lines",line.col="red",
  lwd=3,rad.col="lightblue")
 testlen<-c(sin(seq(0,1.98*pi,length=100))+2+rnorm(100)/10)
 testpos<-seq(0,1.98*pi,length=100)
 radial.plot(testlen,testpos,rp.type="p",main="Test Polygon",line.col="blue",
  labels=LETTERS[1:8],label.pos=seq(0,14*pi/8,length.out=8))
 # now do a 12 o'clock start with clockwise positive
 radial.plot(testlen,testpos,start=pi/2,clockwise=TRUE,show.grid.labels=2,
  rp.type="s",main="Test Symbols (clockwise)",radial.lim=c(0,3.5),
  point.symbols=16,point.col="green",show.centroid=TRUE,
  labels=LETTERS[1:6],label.pos=seq(0,10*pi/6,length.out=6))
 # one without the circular grid and multiple polygons
 # see the "diamondplot" function for variation on this
 posmat<-matrix(sample(2:9,30,TRUE),nrow=3)
 radial.plot(posmat,labels=paste("X",1:10,sep=""),rp.type="p",
  main="Spiderweb plot",line.col=2:4,show.grid=FALSE,lwd=1:3,
  radial.lim=c(0,10))
 # dissolved ions in water
 ions<-c(3.2,5,1,3.1,2.1,4.5)
 ion.names<-c("Na","Ca","Mg","Cl","HCO3","SO4")
 radial.plot(ions,labels=ion.names,rp.type="p",main="Dissolved ions in water",
  grid.unit="meq/l",radial.lim=c(0,5),poly.col="yellow",show.grid.labels=3)
 # add the names of the ions to the plot
 radial.plot(ions,rp.type="t",point.symbols=ion.names,radial.lim=c(0,5),
  add=TRUE)
 # add points inside the polygon - radial.lim is supplied by plotrix_env
 radial.plot(ions-0.4,rp.type="s",point.symbols=4,point.col="red",add=TRUE)
 radmat<-matrix(c(sample(1:4,4),sample(1:4,4),sample(1:4,4),sample(1:4,4),
  sample(1:4,4),sample(1:4,4),sample(1:4,4),sample(1:4,4),
  sample(1:4,4),sample(1:4,4)),nrow=4)
 # finally a rank clock
 radial.plot(radmat,rp.type="l",radial.pos=seq(0,20*pi/11.1,length.out=10),
  label.pos=seq(0,20*pi/11.1,length.out=10),start=pi/2,clockwise=TRUE,
  labels=2001:2010,radial.lim=c(0.2,4),main="Rank clock")
 legend(-1.7,4,c("Black","Red","Green","Blue"),col=1:4,lty=1)
 par(xpd=oldpar$xpd,mar=oldpar$mar,pty=oldpar$pty)
 # reset the margins
 par(mar=c(5,4,4,2))

plotrix documentation built on Nov. 10, 2023, 5:07 p.m.