pirateplot

What is a pirateplot()?

A pirateplot, is the RDI (Raw data, Descriptive statistics, and Inferential statistics) plotting choice of R pirates who are displaying the relationship between 1 to 3 categorical independent variables, and one continuous dependent variable.

library(yarrr)

A pirateplot has 4 main elements

  1. points, symbols representing the raw data (jittered horizontally)
  2. bar, a vertical bar showing central tendencies
  3. bean, a smoothed density (inspired by @kampstra2008beanplot) representing a smoothed density
  4. inf, a rectangle representing an inference interval (e.g.; Bayesian Highest Density Interval or frequentist confidence interval)
pirateplot(formula = weight ~ Diet,
           data = ChickWeight,
           theme = 1,
           back.col = "white",
           gl.col = "white",
           bean.f.o = c(0, .1, .7, .1),
        #   bean.b.o = c(0, .1, 1, .1),
           point.o = c(.4, .1, .1, .1),
           avg.line.o = c(.3, 1, .3, .3),
           inf.f.o = c(.1, .1, .1, .9),
           bar.f.o = c(.1, .8, .1, .1),
           inf.f.col = c("white", "white", "white", piratepal("xmen")[4]),
           main = "4 Elements of a pirateplot", 
           pal = "xmen")


text(.7, 350, labels = "Points")
text(.7, 345, labels = "Raw Data", pos = 1, cex = .8)
arrows(.7, 310, .97, 270, length = .1)

text(1.4, 200, labels = "Bar/Line")
text(1.4, 200, labels = "Center", pos = 1, cex = .8)
arrows(1.4, 170, 1.54, 125, length = .1)

text(2.4, 250, labels = "Bean")
text(2.4, 250, labels = "Density", pos = 1, cex = .8)
arrows(2.4, 220, 2.85, 200, length = .1)

text(3.55, 300, labels = "Band")
text(3.55, 290, labels = "Inference\n95% HDI or CI", pos = 1, cex = .8)

arrows(3.55, 240, 3.8, 150, length = .1)

Main arguments

Here are the main arguments to pirateplot()

pp.elements <- data.frame('Argument' = c("formula", "data", "main", "pal", "theme", "inf"),
                          'Description' = c("A formula", "A dataframe",
                                            "Plot title", "A color palette", "A plotting theme", "Type of inference"),
                          'Examples' = c("height ~ sex + eyepatch, weight ~ Time", 
                                      "pirates, ChickWeight", 
                                      "'Pirate heights', 'Chicken Weights",
                                      "'xmen', 'black'",
                                      "0, 1, 2",
                                      "'ci', 'hdi', 'iqr'"
                                      )
                          )
knitr::kable(pp.elements, caption = "Main Pirateplot Arguments")

Themes

pirateplot() currently supports three themes which change the default look of the plot. To specify a theme, use the theme argument:

Theme 1

theme = 1 is the default

# Theme 1 (the default)
pirateplot(formula = weight ~ Time,
           data = ChickWeight,
           theme = 1,
           main = "theme = 1")

Theme 2

Here is theme = 2

# Theme 2
pirateplot(formula = weight ~ Time,
           data = ChickWeight,
           theme = 2,
           main = "theme = 2")

Theme 3

And now...theme = 3!

# Theme 3
pirateplot(formula = weight ~ Time,
           data = ChickWeight,
           theme = 3,
           main = "theme = 3")

Theme 4

theme = 4 tries to maintain a classic barplot look (but with added raw data).

# Theme 4
pirateplot(formula = weight ~ Time,
           data = ChickWeight,
           theme = 4,
           main = "theme = 4")

Theme 0

theme = 0 allows you to start a pirateplot from scratch -- that is, it turns of all elements. You can then selectively turn elements on with individual arguments (e.g.; bean.f.o, point.o)

# Default theme
pirateplot(formula = weight ~ Time,
           data = ChickWeight,
           theme = 0,
           main = "theme = 0\nStart from scratch")

Color palettes

You can specify a general color palette using the pal argument. You can do this in two ways.

The first way is to specify the name of a color palette in the piratepal() function. Here they are:

piratepal("all")

For example, here is a pirateplot using the "pony" palette

pirateplot(formula = weight ~ Time,
           data = ChickWeight,
           pal = "pony", 
           theme = 1,
           main = "pony color palette")

The second method is to simply enter a vector of one or more colors. Here, I'll create a black and white pirateplot from theme 2 by specifying pal = 'black'

pirateplot(formula = weight ~ Time,
           data = ChickWeight,
           theme = 2,
           pal = "black",
           main = "pal = 'black")

Customising elements

Regardless of the theme you use, you can always customize the color and opacity of graphical elements. To do this, specify one of the following arguments. Note: Arguments with .f. correspond to the filling of an element, while .b. correspond to the border of an element:

pp.elements <- data.frame('element' = c("points", "beans", "bar", "inf", "avg.line"),
                          'color' = c("point.col, point.bg", 
                                      "bean.f.col, bean.b.col", 
                                      "bar.f.col, bar.b.col",
                                      "inf.f.col, inf.b.col",
                                      "avg.line.col"
                                      ),
                          "opacity" = c("point.o", 
                                        "bean.f.o, bean.b.o", 
                                        "bar.f.o, bar.b.o",
                                        "inf.f.o, inf.b.o", "avg.line.o")
                          )

knitr::kable(pp.elements, caption = "Customising plotting elements")

For example, I could create the following pirateplots using theme = 0 and specifying elements explicitly:

pirateplot(formula = weight ~ Time,
           data = ChickWeight,
           theme = 0,
           main = "Fully customized pirateplot",
           pal = "southpark", # southpark color palette
           bean.f.o = .6, # Bean fill
           point.o = .3, # Points
           inf.f.o = .7, # Inference fill
           inf.b.o = .8, # Inference border
           avg.line.o = 1, # Average line
           bar.f.o = .5, # Bar
           inf.f.col = "white", # Inf fill col
           inf.b.col = "black", # Inf border col
           avg.line.col = "black", # avg line col
           bar.f.col = gray(.8), # bar filling color
           point.pch = 21,
           point.bg = "white",
           point.col = "black",
           point.cex = .7)

If you don't want to start from scratch, you can also start with a theme, and then make selective adjustments:

pirateplot(formula = weight ~ Time,
           data = ChickWeight,
           main = "Adjusting an existing theme",
           theme = 2,  # Start with theme 2
           inf.f.o = 0, # Turn off inf fill
           inf.b.o = 0, # Turn off inf border
           point.o = .2,   # Turn up points
           bar.f.o = .5, # Turn up bars
           bean.f.o = .4, # Light bean filling
           bean.b.o = .2, # Light bean border
           avg.line.o = 0, # Turn off average line
           point.col = "black" # Black points
           )

Just to drive the point home, as a barplot is a special case of a pirateplot, you can even reduce a pirateplot into a horrible barplot:

pirateplot(formula = weight ~ Time,
           data = ChickWeight,
           main = "Reducing a pirateplot to a barplot",
           theme = 0, # Start from scratch
           bar.f.o = .7) # Just turn on the bars

Additional arguments

There are several more arguments that you can use to customize your plot:

pp.elements <- data.frame('element' = c("Background color", "Gridlines", "Quantiles", "Average line", "Inference Calculation", "Inference Display"),
                          'arguments' = c("back.col", 
                                      "gl.col, gl.lwd, gl.lty",
                                      "quant, quant.lwd, quant.col", "avg.line.fun", "inf.method", "inf.disp"
                                      ),
                          "examples" = c("back.col = 'gray(.9, .9)'", 
                                        "gl.col = 'gray', gl.lwd = c(.75, 0), gl.lty = 1", 
                                        "quant = c(.1, .9), quant.lwd = 1, quant.col = 'black'",
                                        "avg.line.fun = median", "inf.method = 'hdi', inf.method = 'ci'", "inf.disp = 'line', inf.disp = 'bean', inf.disp = 'rect'")
                          )

knitr::kable(pp.elements, caption = "Additonal pirateplot elements")

Here's an example using a background color, and quantile lines.

pirateplot(formula = weight ~ Time, 
           data = ChickWeight,
           main = "Adding quantile lines and background colors",
           theme = 2, 
           back.col = gray(.98), # Add light gray background
           gl.col = "gray", # Gray gridlines
           gl.lwd = c(.75, 0),
           inf.f.o = .6, # Turn up inf filling
           inf.disp = "bean", # Wrap inference around bean
           bean.b.o = .4, # Turn down bean borders
           quant = c(.1, .9), # 10th and 90th quantiles
           quant.col = "black" # Black quantile lines
           )

Multiple IVs

You can use up to 3 categorical IVs in your plot. Here are some examples:

pirateplot(formula = height ~ sex + eyepatch + headband,
           data = pirates,
           theme = 2,
           inf.disp = "bean")

Here's a pirateplot with showing the relationship between movie running times based on movie genre and whether the movie is a sequel or not.

pirateplot(formula = time ~ sequel + genre + rating,
           data = subset(movies, 
                         genre %in% c("Action", "Adventure", "Comedy", "Horror") &
                         rating %in% c("G", "PG", "PG-13", "R") &
                         time > 0),
           theme = 3,
           cex.lab = .8,
           inf.disp = "rect",
           pal = "up")

Output

If you include the plot = FALSE argument to a pirateplot, the function will return some values associated with the plot.

times.pp <- pirateplot(formula = time ~ sequel + genre,
                       data = subset(movies, 
                         genre %in% c("Action", "Adventure", "Comedy", "Horror") &
                         rating %in% c("G", "PG", "PG-13", "R") &
                         time > 0),
                         plot = FALSE)

Here's the result. The most interesting element is $summary which shows summary statistics for each bean:

times.pp

Contribute!

I am very happy to receive new contributions and suggestions to improve the pirateplot. If you come up a new theme (i.e.; customization) that you like, or have a favorite color palette that you'd like to have implemented, please contact me (yarrr.book@gmail.com) or post an issue at www.github.com/ndphillips/yarrr/issues and I might include it in a future update.

References

The pirateplot is really a knock-off of the great beanplot package and visualization from @kampstra2008beanplot.



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yarrr documentation built on May 2, 2019, 9:41 a.m.