R: Cleveland's Dot Plots

dotchart {graphics} | R Documentation

## Cleveland's Dot Plots

### Description

Draw a Cleveland dot plot.

### Usage

    dotchart(x, labels = NULL, groups = NULL, gdata = NULL,
             cex = par("cex"), pch = 21, gpch = 21, bg = par("bg"),
             color = par("fg"), gcolor = par("fg"), lcolor = "gray",
             xlim = range(x[is.finite(x)]),
             main = NULL, xlab = NULL, ylab = NULL, ...)

### Arguments

`x` | either a vector or matrix of numeric values (`NA`s are allowed). If `x` is a matrix the overall plot consists of juxtaposed dotplots for each row. Inputs which satisfy `is.numeric(x)` but not `is.vector(x) || is.matrix(x)` are coerced by `as.numeric`, with a warning.
`labels` | a vector of labels for each point. For vectors the default is to use `names(x)` and for matrices the row labels `dimnames(x)[[1]]`.
`groups` | an optional factor indicating how the elements of `x` are grouped. If `x` is a matrix, `groups` will default to the columns of `x`.
`gdata` | data values for the groups. This is typically a summary such as the median or mean of each group.
`cex` | the character size to be used. Setting `cex` to a value smaller than one can be a useful way of avoiding label overlap. Unlike many other graphics functions, this sets the actual size, not a multiple of `par("cex")`.
`pch` | the plotting character or symbol to be used.
`gpch` | the plotting character or symbol to be used for group values.
`bg` | the background color of plotting characters or symbols to be used; use `par(bg= *)` to set the background color of the whole plot.
`color` | the color(s) to be used for points and labels.
`gcolor` | the single color to be used for group labels and values.
`lcolor` | the color(s) to be used for the horizontal lines.
`xlim` | horizontal range for the plot, see `plot.window`, e.g.
`main` | overall title for the plot, see `title`.
`xlab, ylab` | axis annotations as in `title`.
`...` | graphical parameters can also be specified as arguments.

### Value

This function is invoked for its side effect, which is to produce two variants of dotplots as described in Cleveland (1985).

Dot plots are a reasonable substitute for bar plots.

### References

Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.

Cleveland, W. S. (1985) The Elements of Graphing Data. Monterey, CA: Wadsworth.

Murrell, P. (2005) R Graphics. Chapman & Hall/CRC Press.

### Examples

    dotchart(VADeaths, main = "Death Rates in Virginia - 1940")
    op <- par(xaxs = "i")  # 0 -- 100%
    dotchart(t(VADeaths), xlim = c(0,100),
             main = "Death Rates in Virginia - 1940")
    par(op)

[Package graphics version 3.1.2 Index]