Cleveland Dotcharts

[ top | up ]

dotplot(x, labels=NULL, groups=NULL, gdata=NULL,
        color, gcolor, pch=11, gpch=11, cex, ...)

`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.
`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]]`.
`group`	an optional factor indicating how the elements of `x` are grouped. If `x` is a matrix, the 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.
`color`	the color to be used for points an labels.
`gcolor`	the color to be used for group labels and values.
`pch`	the plotting character or symbol to be used.
`gpch`	the plotting character or symbol to be usea for group values.
`cex`	the character size to be used. Setting `cex` to value smaller than one can be a useful way of avoiding label overlap.
`...`	graphical parameters can also be specified as arguments.

This function is invoked for its side effect, which is to produce two variants of dotplots as described in Cleveland's graphics book.

Dotcharts are a reasonable substitute for barcharts.

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

data(deaths) dotplot(deaths, main="Death Rates in Virginia - 1940") dotplot(t(deaths), main="Death Rates in Virginia - 1940")