plotrix (version 2.1-5)

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

Description

radial.plot displays a plot of radial lines, polygon(s) or symbols 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.

Usage

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

Arguments

lengths

A numeric data vector or matrix. Magnitudes will be represented as line lengths or polygon vertices. 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 as distance from the 'center' of the plot. If missing, they will be placed at 1.1 times the maximum of lengths.

rp.type

whether to draw (r)adial lines, a (p)olygon or (s)ymbols.

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.

grid.col

Color of the circular grid.

grid.bg

Fill color of above.

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.

Value

• nil

Details

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.

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")
 radial.plot(testlen,testpos,rp.type="s",main="Test Symbols",point.symbols=16,
  point.col="green",show.centroid=TRUE)
 par(ask=FALSE)