joinData2Map: Joins user polygon attribute data to a map

Description

Joins user polygon attribute data to a map of polygon boundaries. The map can either be one stored in the package or provided by the user. Returns a spatialPolygonsDataFrame ready for plotting using mapPolys. Reports join successes and failures.

Usage

joinData2Map(dF
        , nameMap = ""
        , nameJoinIDMap = "ISO3"
        , nameJoinColumnData = "ISO3V10"
        , nameNameColumnData = "Country"
        , suggestForFailedCodes = FALSE 
        , projection=NA #DEPRECATED JUNE 2012  
        , mapResolution="coarse" 
        , verbose = FALSE                         
        )

Arguments

R data frame with at least one column of polygon IDs and one column of data

nameMap

the map to join the attribute data too

nameJoinIDMap

the name of the joinIDs in the map

nameJoinColumnData

name of column in the data containing country referencing

nameNameColumnData

optional name of column in the data containing polygon names (used in reporting of success/failure)

suggestForFailedCodes

NOT YET ENABLED T/F whether you want system to suggest for failed codes

projection

DEPRECATED JUNE 2012

mapResolution

resolution of the borders in the internal map: options 'coarse','low', 'less islands'

verbose

if set to FALSE progress messages to console are restricted

Value

An R 'SpatialPolygonsDataFrame' [package "sp"] object with the data joined to it

Details

Joins user polygon attribute data provided in a 'data frame' to a map of polygon boundaries. The map can either be one stored in the package or provided by the user. Returns a spatialPolygonsDataFrame ready for plotting using mapPolys. Reports join successes and failures. The user specifies the name of the column in their data containing polygon referencing. The user can choose from different internal map resolutions. Uses the function getMap to retrieve the map.

Examples

Run this code

## this example uses downloaded files
## to run it download the files
## and remove the comment symbols '#' from all the lines starting with a single '#'

## US states map downloaded from :
## http://www2.census.gov/cgi-bin/shapefiles2009/national-files

#inFile <- 'tl_2009_us_stateec.shp'
#sPDF <- readShapePoly(inFile)
#str(sPDF@data)

##################
## use mapPolys to map the sPDF
#mapPolys(sPDF,nameColumnToPlot = "ALANDEC")
#mapPolys(sPDF,nameColumnToPlot = "AWATEREC",mapRegion='North America')

##################
## join some other data to it
## education data downloaded from here as xls then saved as csv
## http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/drpcompstatelvl.asp

#dataFile <- 'SDR071A_xls.csv'
#dF <- read.csv(dataFile,as.is=TRUE)
#str(dF)
## STATENAME
## DRP912 Dropout Rate, Grades 9 through 12

## joining the data to the map
## based upon state names (column NAMEEC in map, and STATENAME in the data)
#sPDF2 <- joinData2Map(dF
#        , nameMap = sPDF
#        , nameJoinIDMap = "NAMEEC"
#        , nameJoinColumnData = "STATENAME")

#################
## plot one of the attribute variables
#mapDevice()# to set nice shape map window
#mapPolys(sPDF2,nameColumnToPlot = "DRP912",mapRegion='North America')