How to draw lines on a plot in R? - r

Question

I need to draw lines from the data stored in a text file.
So far I am able only to draw points on a graph and i would like to have them as lines (line graph).
Here's the code:
pupil_data <- read.table("C:/a1t_left_test.dat", header=T, sep="\t")
max_y <- max(pupil_data$PupilLeft)
plot(NA,NA,xlim=c(0,length(pupil_data$PupilLeft)), ylim=c(2,max_y));
for (i in 1:(length(pupil_data$PupilLeft) - 1))
{
points(i, y = pupil_data$PupilLeft[i], type = "o", col = "red", cex = 0.5, lwd = 2.0)
}
Please help me change this line of code:
points(i, y = pupil_data$PupilLeft[i], type = "o", col = "red")
to draw lines from the data.
Here is the data in the file:
PupilLeft
3.553479
3.539469
3.527239
3.613131
3.649437
3.632779
3.614373
3.605981
3.595985
3.630766
3.590724
3.626535
3.62386
3.619688
3.595711
3.627841
3.623596
3.650569
3.64876

Answer 1

By default, R will plot a single vector as the y coordinates, and use a sequence for the x coordinates. So to make the plot you are after, all you need is:
plot(pupil_data$PupilLeft, type = "o")
You haven't provided any example data, but you can see this with the built-in iris data set:
plot(iris[,1], type = "o")
This does in fact plot the points as lines. If you are actually getting points without lines, you'll need to provide a working example with your data to figure out why.
EDIT:
Your original code doesn't work because of the loop. You are in effect asking R to plot a line connecting a single point to itself each time through the loop. The next time through the loop R doesn't know that there are other points that you want connected; if it did, this would break the intended use of points, which is to add points/lines to an existing plot.
Of course, the line connecting a point to itself doesn't really make sense, and so it isn't plotted (or is plotted too small to see, same result).
Your example is most easily done without a loop:
PupilLeft <- c(3.553479 ,3.539469 ,3.527239 ,3.613131 ,3.649437 ,3.632779 ,3.614373
,3.605981 ,3.595985 ,3.630766 ,3.590724 ,3.626535 ,3.62386 ,3.619688
,3.595711 ,3.627841 ,3.623596 ,3.650569 ,3.64876)
plot(PupilLeft, type = 'o')
If you really do need to use a loop, then the coding becomes more involved. One approach would be to use a closure:
makeaddpoint <- function(firstpoint){
## firstpoint is the y value of the first point in the series
lastpt <- firstpoint
lastptind <- 1
addpoint <- function(nextpt, ...){
pts <- rbind(c(lastptind, lastpt), c(lastptind + 1, nextpt))
points(pts, ... )
lastpt <<- nextpt
lastptind <<- lastptind + 1
}
return(addpoint)
}
myaddpoint <- makeaddpoint(PupilLeft[1])
plot(NA,NA,xlim=c(0,length(PupilLeft)), ylim=c(2,max(PupilLeft)))
for (i in 2:(length(PupilLeft)))
{
myaddpoint(PupilLeft[i], type = "o")
}
You can then wrap the myaddpoint call in the for loop with whatever testing you need to decide whether or not you will actually plot that point. The function returned by makeaddpoint will keep track of the plot indexing for you.
This is normal programming for Lisp-like languages. If you find it confusing you can do this without a closure, but you'll need to handle incrementing the index and storing the previous point value 'manually' in your loop.

Answer 2

There is a strong aversion among experienced R coders to using for-loops when not really needed. This is an example of a loop-less use of a vectorized function named segments that takes 4 vectors as arguments: x0,y0, x1,y1
npups <-length(pupil_data$PupilLeft)
segments(1:(npups-1), pupil_data$PupilLeft[-npups], # the starting points
2:npups, pupil_data$PupilLeft[-1] ) # the ending points