Circular Plot Using Segments

A circular plot useful for visualising monthly or weekly data.

Usage

plotCircular(
  area1,
  area2 = NULL,
  spokes = NULL,
  scale = 0.8,
  labels,
  stats = TRUE,
  dp = 1,
  clockwise = TRUE,
  spoke.col = "black",
  lines = FALSE,
  centrecirc = 0.03,
  main = "",
  xlab = "",
  ylab = "",
  pieces.col = c("white", "gray"),
  length = FALSE,
  legend = TRUE,
  auto.legend = list(x = "bottomright", fill = NULL, labels = NULL, title = ""),
  ...
)

Arguments

area1

variable to plot, the area of the segments (or petals) are proportional to this variable.

area2

2nd variable to plot (optional), the area of the segments are plotted in grey.

spokes

spokes that overlay segments, for example standard errors (optional).

scale

scale the overall size of the segments (default:0.8).

labels

optional labels to appear at the ends of the segments (there should be as many labels as there are area1).

stats

put area values at the ends of the segments, default:TRUE.

dp

decimal places for statistics, default=1.

clockwise

plot in a clockwise direction, default:TRUE.

spoke.col

spoke colour, default:black.

lines

add dotted lines to separate petals, default:FALSE.

centrecirc

controls the size of the circle at the centre of the plot, default:0.03.

main

title for plot, default:blank

xlab

x axis label, default:blank

ylab

y axis label, default:blank

pieces.col

colours for circular pieces, default:"white" for 1st and "grey" for second variable. Note that a list of available colours may be found with colours().

length

make the length of the segments proportional to the dependent variable, default:FALSE

legend

whether to include legend or not, default:TRUE when plotting two variables

auto.legend

list of parameters for legend, see legend()

...

additional arguments to plot() and/or legend(). See par() for more details

Value

a circular plot, also known as "rosebud", and "nightingale" plots.

Details

A circular plot can be useful for spotting the shape of the seasonal pattern. This function can be used to plot any circular patterns, e.g., weekly or monthly. The number of segments will be the length of the variable area1.

The plots are also called rose diagrams, with the segments then called "petals".

References

Fisher, N.I. (1993) Statistical Analysis of Circular Data. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Author

Adrian Barnett a.barnett@qut.edu.au

Examples

# \donttest{
weekfreq <- table(round(runif(100, min = 1, max = 7)))
# weeks (random data)
daysoftheweek <- c(
  'Monday',
  'Tuesday',
  'Wednesday',
  'Thursday',
  'Friday',
  'Saturday',
  'Sunday'
)
plotCircular(area1 = weekfreq, labels = daysoftheweek, dp = 0)

# Observed number of AFL players with expected values
plotCircular(
  area1 = AFL$players,
  area2 = AFL$expected,
  scale = 0.72,
  labels = month.abb,
  dp = 0,
  lines = TRUE,
  legend = FALSE
)

plotCircular(
  area1 = AFL$players,
  area2 = AFL$expected,
  scale = 0.72,
  labels = month.abb,
  dp = 0,
  lines = TRUE,
  pieces.col = c("green", "red"),
  auto.legend = list(labels = c("Obs", "Exp"), title = "# players"),
  main = "Observed and Expected AFL players"
)

# months (dummy data)
plotCircular(
  area1 = seq(1, 12, 1),
  scale = 0.7,
  labels = month.abb,
  dp = 0
)


# }