chart.StackedBar: create a stacked bar plot

Description

This creates a stacked column chart with time on the horizontal axis and values in categories. This kind of chart is commonly used for showing portfolio 'weights' through time, although the function will plot any values by category.

Usage

chart.StackedBar(w, colorset = NULL, space = 0.2, cex.axis = 0.8, cex.legend = 0.8, cex.lab = 1, cex.labels = 0.8, cex.main = 1, xaxis = TRUE, legend.loc = "under", element.color = "darkgray", unstacked = TRUE, xlab = "Date", ylab = "Value", ylim = NULL, date.format = "%b %y", major.ticks = "auto", minor.ticks = TRUE, las = 0, xaxis.labels = NULL, ...)

Arguments

a matrix, data frame or zoo object of values to be plotted. Rownames should contain dates or period labels; column names should indicate categories. See examples for detail.

colorset

color palette to use, set by default to rational choices

space

the amount of space (as a fraction of the average bar width) left before each bar, as in barplot. Default is 0.2.

cex.axis

The magnification to be used for sizing the axis text relative to the current setting of 'cex', similar to plot.

cex.legend

The magnification to be used for sizing the legend relative to the current setting of 'cex', similar to plot.

cex.lab

The magnification to be used for x- and y-axis labels relative to the current setting of 'cex'.

cex.labels

The magnification to be used for event line labels relative to the current setting of 'cex'.

cex.main

The magnification to be used for the chart title relative to the current setting of 'cex'.

xaxis

If true, draws the x axis

legend.loc

places a legend into a location on the chart similar to chart.TimeSeries. The default, "under," is the only location currently implemented for this chart. Use 'NULL' to remove the legend.

element.color

provides the color for drawing less-important chart elements, such as the box lines, axis lines, etc.

unstacked

logical. If set to 'TRUE' and only one row of data is submitted in 'w', then the chart creates a normal column chart. If more than one row is submitted, then this is ignored. See examples below.

xlab

the x-axis label, which defaults to 'NULL'.

ylab

Set the y-axis label, same as in plot

ylim

set the y-axis limit, same as in plot

date.format

Re-format the dates for the xaxis; the default is "%m/%y"

major.ticks

Should major tickmarks be drawn and labeled, default 'auto'

minor.ticks

Should minor tickmarks be drawn, default TRUE

las

sets the orientation of the axis labels, as described in par. Defaults to '3'.

xaxis.labels

Allows for non-date labeling of date axes, default is NULL

...

arguments to be passed to barplot.

Details

This function is a wrapper for barplot but adds three additional capabilities. First, it calculates and sets a bottom margin for long column names that are rotated vertically. That doesn't always result in the prettiest chart, but it does ensure readable labels.

Second, it places a legend "under" the graph rather than within the bounds of the chart (which would obscure the data). The legend is created from the column names. The default is to create the legend when there's more than one row of data being presented. If there is one row of data, the chart may be "unstacked" and the legend removed.

Third, it plots or stacks negative values from an origin of zero, similar to the behavior of barchart from the 'lattice' package.

References

Cleveland, W.S. (1994), The Elements of Graphing Data, Summit, NJ: Hobart Press.

Tufte, Edward R. (2001) The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition. The Graphics Press, Cheshire, Connecticut. See http://www.edwardtufte.com for this and other references.

Examples

Run this code

data(weights)
head(weights)

# With the legend "under" the chart
chart.StackedBar(weights, date.format="\%Y", cex.legend = 0.7, colorset=rainbow12equal)

# Without the legend
chart.StackedBar(weights, colorset=rainbow12equal, legend.loc=NULL)

# for one row of data, use 'unstacked' for a better chart
chart.StackedBar(weights[1,,drop=FALSE], unstacked=TRUE, las=3)