The micromapST function has the ability to generate linked micromaps for any geographical area. To specify the geographical area, the bordGrp call argument is used to specify the border group dataset for the geographical area. The AfricaBG border group dataset supports creating linked micromaps for the 52 countries (sub-areas) on the African continent. When the bordGrp call argument is set to AfricaBG, the appropriate name table (country names and abbreviations) and the 52 sub-areas (countries) boundary data is loaded in micromapST. The user's data is then linked to the boundary data via the country's name, abbreviation, alternate abbreviation, or ID based on the table below.
data(AfricaBG)The AfricaBG border group dataset contains the following data.frames:
- contains specific parameters for the border group
- containing the names, abbreviations, and numerical identifier for the 59 countries in Africa.
- the boundary point lists for each country in Africa.
- the boundaries for an intermediate level and is not used in this border group and is set to L3VisBorders as a place holder.
- the boundaries for regions in Africa. In this implementation of the border group, no regions are specified. This data frame is not used and is set to L3VisBorders as a place holder.
- the boundary of the Africa continent.
The Africa continent border group contains 52 country sub-areas. Each country has a row in the areaNamesAbbrsIDs data.frame and a set of polygons in the areaVisBorders data.frame datasets. No regions are defined in the Africa border group, so the L2VisBorders dataset is not used and the regions option is disabled. The L3VisBorders dataset contains the outline of the Africa continent.
The details on each of these data.frame structures can be found in the "bordGrp" section of this document. The areaNamesAbbrsIDs data.frame provides the linkages to the boundary data for each sub-area (country) using the fullname, abbreviation, alternate abbreviation, and numerical identifier for each country to the <statsDFrame> data based on the setting of the rowNames call argument.
A column or the data.frame row.names must match one of the types of names in the areaNamesAbbrsIDs data.frame name table. If the data row does not match a value in the name table, an warning is issued and the data is ignored. If no data is present for a sub-area (country) in the name table, the sub-area is mapped but not colored.
The following are a list of the names, abbreviations, alternate abbreviations and IDs for each country in the AfricaBG border group.
| name | ab | alt_ab | id |
| Algeria | ALG | DZ | 01 |
| Angola | ANG | AO | 02 |
| Benin | BEN | BJ | 03 |
| Botswana | BOT | BW | 04 |
| Burkina Faso | BUF | BF | 05 |
| Burundi | BUR | BI | 06 |
| Cameroon | CAM | CM | 07 |
| Cape Verde | CAP | CV | 08 |
| Central African Republic | CAR | CF | 09 |
| Chad | CHA | TD | 10 |
| Comoros | COM | KM | 11 |
| Congo-Brazzaville | CNG | CG | 12 |
| Cote d`Ivoire | CDI | CI | 13 |
| Democratic Republic of Congo | ZAI | ZR | 14 |
| Djibouti | DJI | DJ | 15 |
| Egypt | EGY | EG | 16 |
| Equatorial Guinea | EQG | GQ | 17 |
| Eritrea | ERI | ER | 18 |
| Ethiopia | ETH | ET | 19 |
| Gabon | GAB | GA | 20 |
| Gambia | GAM | GM | 21 |
| Ghana | GHA | GH | 22 |
| Guinea | GIN | GN | 23 |
| Guinea-Bissau | GUB | GW | 24 |
| Kenya | KEN | KE | 25 |
| Lesotho | LES | LS | 26 |
| Liberia | LIB | LR | 27 |
| Libya | LAJ | LY | 28 |
| Madagascar | MAD | MG | 29 |
| Malawi | MAA | MW | 30 |
| Mali | MAL | ML | 31 |
| Mauritania | MAU | MR | 32 |
| Morocco | MOR | MA | 33 |
| Mozambique | MOZ | MZ | 34 |
| Namibia | NAM | NA | 35 |
| Niger | NIG | NE | 36 |
| Nigeria | NIR | NG | 37 |
| Rwanda | RWA | RW | 38 |
| Sao Tome and Principe | STP | ST | 39 |
| Senegal | SEN | SN | 40 |
| Sierra Leone | SIL | SL | 41 |
| Somalia | SOM | SO | 42 |
| South Africa | SOU | SA | 43 |
| Sudan | SUD | SD | 44 |
| Swaziland | SWA | SZ | 45 |
| Tanzania | TAN | TZ | 46 |
| Togo | TOG | TG | 47 |
| Tunisia | TUN | TN | 48 |
| Uganda | UGA | UG | 49 |
| Western Sahara | WES | WS | 50 |
| Zambia | ZAM | ZM | 51 |
| Zimbabwe | ZIM | ZW | 52 |
When this border group was created, there appeared to be no consistant set of abbreviations for the African countries. Therefore, the two most commonly found sets of abbreviations are included as the abbr and alt_abbr abbreviation sets. Set rownames to "ab" to reference the primary set and "alt_ab" to reference the second set of abbreviates in the name table.
The rowNames = "alias" and the regionB and dataRegionsOnly features are not supported in the AfricaBG border group.