AfricaBG: AfricaBG border group datasets to support creating micromaps for the 52 countries in Africa

Description

The micromapST function has the ability to generate linked micromaps for any geographical area. To specify the geographical area, the bordGrp call argument is used to specify the border group dataset for the geographical area. The AfricaBG border group dataset supports creating linked micromaps for the 52 countries (sub-areas) on the African continent. When the bordGrp call argument is set to AfricaBG, the appropriate name table (country names and abbreviations) and the 52 sub-areas (countries) boundary data is loaded in micromapST. The user's data is then linked to the boundary data via the country's name, abbreviation, alternate abbreviation, or ID based on the table below.

Arguments

Details

The AfricaBG border group dataset contains the following data.frames:

The Africa continent border group contains 52 country sub-areas. Each country has a row in the areaNamesAbbrsIDs data.frame and a set of polygons in the areaVisBorders data.frame datasets. No regions are defined in the Africa border group, so the L2VisBorders dataset is not used and the regions option is disabled. The L3VisBorders dataset contains the outline of the Africa continent.

The details on each of these data.frame structures can be found in the "bordGrp" section of this document. The areaNamesAbbrsIDs data.frame provides the linkages to the boundary data for each sub-area (country) using the fullname, abbreviation, alternate abbreviation, and numerical identifier for each country to the data based on the setting of the rowNames call argument.

A column or the data.frame row.names must match one of the types of names in the areaNamesAbbrsIDs data.frame name table. If the data row does not match a value in the name table, an warning is issued and the data is ignored. If no data is present for a sub-area (country) in the name table, the sub-area is mapped but not colored.

The following are a list of the names, abbreviations, alternate abbreviations and IDs for each country in the AfricaBG border group.

name	ab	alt_ab
id	Algeria	ALG
DZ	01	Angola
ANG	AO	02
Benin	BEN	BJ
03	Botswana	BOT
BW	04	Burkina Faso
BUF	BF	05
Burundi	BUR	BI
06	Cameroon	CAM
CM	07	Cape Verde
CAP	CV	08
Central African Republic	CAR	CF
09	Chad	CHA
TD	10	Comoros
COM	KM	11
Congo-Brazzaville	CNG	CG
12	Cote d`Ivoire	CDI
CI	13	Democratic Republic of Congo
ZAI	ZR	14
Djibouti	DJI	DJ
15	Egypt	EGY
EG	16	Equatorial Guinea
EQG	GQ	17
Eritrea	ERI	ER
18	Ethiopia	ETH
ET	19	Gabon
GAB	GA	20
Gambia	GAM	GM
21	Ghana	GHA
GH	22	Guinea
GIN	GN	23
Guinea-Bissau	GUB	GW
24	Kenya	KEN
KE	25	Lesotho
LES	LS	26
Liberia	LIB	LR
27	Libya	LAJ
LY	28	Madagascar
MAD	MG	29
Malawi	MAA	MW
30	Mali	MAL
ML	31	Mauritania
MAU	MR	32
Morocco	MOR	MA
33	Mozambique	MOZ
MZ	34	Namibia
NAM	NA	35
Niger	NIG	NE
36	Nigeria	NIR
NG	37	Rwanda
RWA	RW	38
Sao Tome and Principe	STP	ST
39	Senegal	SEN
SN	40	Sierra Leone
SIL	SL	41
Somalia	SOM	SO
42	South Africa	SOU
SA	43	Sudan
SUD	SD	44
Swaziland	SWA	SZ
45	Tanzania	TAN
TZ	46	Togo
TOG	TG	47
Tunisia	TUN	TN
48	Uganda	UGA
UG	49	Western Sahara
WES	WS	50
Zambia	ZAM	ZM
51	Zimbabwe	ZIM
ZW	52	name

When this border group was created, there appeared to be no consistant set of abbreviations for the African countries. Therefore, the two most commonly found sets of abbreviations are included as the abbr and alt_abbr abbreviation sets. Set rownames to "ab" to reference the primary set and "alt_ab" to reference the second set of abbreviates in the name table.

The rowNames = "alias" and the regionB and dataRegionsOnly features are not supported in the AfricaBG border group.