radial.plot {plotrix}R Documentation

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,label.pos=NULL,
 start=0,clockwise=FALSE,rp.type="r",label.prop=1.1,main="",xlab="",ylab="",
 line.col=par("fg"),mar=c(2,2,3,2),show.grid=TRUE,show.radial.grid=TRUE,
 grid.col="gray",grid.bg="transparent",grid.left=FALSE,point.symbols=NULL,
 point.col=NULL,show.centroid=FALSE,radial.lim=NULL,...)

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 NA, will suppress printing of labels, but if missing, the radial positions will be used.
label.pos The positions of the labels aroung the plot in radians.
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 or some combination of these.
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.
mar Margins for the plot. Allows the user to leave space for legends, etc.
show.grid Logical - whether to draw a circular grid.
show.radial.grid Whether to draw radial lines to the plot labels.
grid.col Color of the circular grid.
grid.bg Fill color of above.
grid.left Whether to place the radial grid labels on the left side.
point.symbols The symbols for plotting (as in pch).
point.col Colors for the symbols.
show.centroid Whether to display a centroid.
radial.lim The range of the grid circle. Defaults to range(pretty(lengths)).
... Additional arguments are passed to plot.

Details

radial.plot displays a plot of radial lines, polygon(s), symbols 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. If show.centroid is TRUE, an enlarged point at the centroid of values is displayed.

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.

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. Note that if the observations are not taken at equal intervals around the circle, the centroid may not mean much.

Value

nil

Author(s)

Jim Lemon

See Also

polar.plot,clock24.plot

Examples

 testlen<-rnorm(10)*2+5
 testpos<-seq(0,18*pi/10,length=10)
 testlab<-letters[1:10]
 radial.plot(testlen,testpos,main="Test Radial Lines",line.col="red",lwd=3)
 if(dev.interactive()) par(ask=TRUE)
 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")
 # now do a 12 o'clock start with clockwise positive
 radial.plot(testlen,testpos,start=pi/2,clockwise=TRUE,
  rp.type="s",main="Test Symbols (clockwise)",
  point.symbols=16,point.col="green",show.centroid=TRUE)
 par(ask=FALSE)

[Package plotrix version 2.2-8 Index]