graphicsQC (version 1.0-8)

plotExpr: Plot arbitrary code

Description

Produce plots from R expression(s), function(s), or file(s) in specified file formats. An XML file is also created which contains information about the plots produced.

Usage

plotExpr(expr, filetype = NULL, path = NULL, prefix = "graphicsqc", clear = FALSE)
  plotFile(filename, filetype = NULL, path = NULL, prefix = basename(filename), clear = FALSE)
  plotFunction(fun, filetype = NULL, path = NULL, prefix = fun, clear = FALSE)

Arguments

expr

character vector of R expressions which may or may not produce graphical output.

filename

the name of the file which the expressions are to be read from. The path is assumed to be relative to the current working directory unless an absolute path is given.

fun

character vector naming the function(s) to plot or just the (named) function.

filetype

character vector specifying file formats to produce the plots in (see details for currently supported formats).

path

character vector; path to produce output in. If not given, the current working directory will be used.

prefix

character vector; prefix for files produced. If multiple functions or files are given, the resulting plotFile or plotFunction XML file will use the first prefix.

clear

logical (not NA); remove files with names we might use first. If clear is FALSE and files exist with names we might use, an error is given.

Value

A list of class qcPlotExprResult, qcPlotFileResult, or qcPlotFunctionResult respectively. The list contains information about the environment creating the plots (Operating System, R version, date, call), the names of the plots produced and any warnings/errors produced.

Warning

Do not give any code that will open a graphics device (especially if that device is not closed).

Details

All functions evaluate the code they are given, capturing and recording any warnings and errors. The code run for plotFunction is extracted from any example code (see example).

If an error is encountered when running a block of code, that particular block (say, a file or function) will stop being executed for that filetype but the error will be recorded. If a warning is encountered, the code will continue being evaluated.

The name for the log file is based on the first prefix and the type of function producing the plots. For plotExpr XML logs, 1 log file will be produced with a name of the form ‘prefix-log.xml’. plotFile and plotFunction work by making multiple calls to plotExpr, so will produce plotExpr logs (one for each file or function respectively), as well as their own log, which will be named (using the first prefix) with the format ‘prefix-fileLog.xml’ and ‘prefix-funLog.xml’ respectively.

Currently supported file formats are ‘pdf’, ‘png’, and ‘ps’ (and ‘bmp’ on Windows). If the filetype argument is NULL, all valid file formats are produced.

See Also

compare, writeReport.

Examples

## Not run: 
#   # plotExpr example:
#   example1 <- plotExpr(c("plot(1:10)", "plot(4:40)", "x<-3", "plot(2:23)"),
#                        c("pdf", "ps"), "example1", "myPrefix")
#   # There should now be a folder "example1" in the current
#   # working directory containing pdf and ps files and myPrefix-log.xml, ie
#   list.files("example1")
# 
#   # plotFunction example:
#   example2 <- plotFunction(c("plot", "barplot", "hist"), c("pdf", "ps"),
#                            path = "example2")
#   list.files("example2")
# 
#   # A bigger example:
#   # require(grid)
#   # gridExample <- plotFunction(ls("package:grid"), c("pdf", "png", "ps"),
#   #                             path = "gridExample")
# ## End(Not run)