A graphical symbol map is an association between
data values and graphical symbols.
The command symbolmap
creates an object of class
"symbolmap"
that represents a graphical symbol map. Once a symbol map has been created, it can be applied to any
suitable data to generate a plot of those data.
This makes it easy to ensure that
the same symbol map is used in two different plots.
The symbol map can be plotted as a legend to the plots,
and can also be plotted in its own right.
The possible values of data that will be mapped
are specified by range
or inputs
.
- if
range
is given, it should be a numeric vector
of length 2 giving the minimum and maximum values of the range
of numbers that will be mapped. These limits must be finite.
- if
inputs
is given, it should be a vector
of any atomic type (e.g. numeric, character, logical, factor).
This vector contains all the possible data values
that will be mapped.
- If neither
range
nor inputs
is given,
it is assumed that the possible values are real numbers.
The association of data values with graphical symbols
is specified by the other arguments ...
which are given in name=value
form.
These arguments specify the kinds of symbols that will be
used, the sizes of the symbols, and graphics parameters for
drawing the symbols.
Each graphics parameter can be either a single
value, for example shape="circles"
,
or a function(x)
which determines the value
of the graphics parameter as a function of the data x
,
for example shape=function(x) ifelse(x > 0, "circles", "squares")
.
Colourmaps (see colourmap
) are also acceptable
because they are functions.
Currently recognised graphics parameters, and their
allowed values, are:
A vector of colour values is also acceptable for the arguments
col,cols,fg,bg
if
range
is specified.