[R] tapply() and barplot() help files for 1.8.1

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "David" == David Whiting <david.whiting at ncl.ac.uk>
>>>>>     on 15 Apr 2004 11:42:18 +0000 writes:

    David> Hi,

    David> I've just upgraded to 1.9.0 and one of my Sweave
    David> files that produces a number of barplots in a
    David> standard manner now produces them in a different way.
    David> I have made a couple of small changes to my code to
    David> get the back the output I was getting before
    David> upgrading and now (mostly out of curiosity) would
    David> like to understand what has changed.

and I like to help you.
As I keep installed `(almost) all released versions of R ever
installed on our machines'
I can easily run 1.8.1 (or 1.4.x or 1.0.x ...) for you.

The only difference
 between the help page help(tapply)
is an extra   "require(stats)" statement at the beginning of the
`Examples' section in 1.9.0.

and the only change to  tapply() is 
    group <- rep.int(one, nx)#- to contain the splitting vector
instead of
    group <- rep    (one, nx)#- to contain the splitting vector

which hardly should have adverse results.

In barplot, there's the new 'offset' option  --- not in NEWS (!!!!)

and another change that may be a problem.

Can you dig harder and if possible provide a reproducible (small..)
example to make progress here...


    David> I *think* I've tracked it down to tapply() and/or
    David> barplot() and have not seen anything in the NEWS file
    David> regarding changes to these functions (as far a I can
    David> see).  As part of doing my homework, I would like to
    David> read the version 1.8.1 help files for these two
    David> functions, but now that I've upgraded I'm not sure
    David> where I can find them.  Is there a simple way for me
    David> to get copies of these two help files to compare with
    David> the versions in 1.9.0?  As far as I can see,
    David> barplot() and tapply() in 1.9.0 work as described in
    David> their 1.9.0 help files (which does not surprise me).

    David> I've been lurking on this list long enough to know
    David> that if there has been a change it is documented, so
    David> it must be that I just haven't found it yet.  If
    David> there hasn't been a change, then I am totally
    David> perplexed, because I have been running this Sweave
    David> file several times a day for the last few weeks and
    David> have not changed that part of it (I've been changing
    David> the LaTeX parts).

    David> In the part of the code that has changed I use
    David> tapply() to summarise some data and then plot it with
    David> barplot().  I now have to use matrix() on the output
    David> of tapply() before using barplot() because tapply()
    David> produces a list and barplot() wants a vector or
    David> matrix.

    David> In the code below, z is a dataframe, yllperdth is a
    David> numeric and fld is the name of a factor, both in the
    David> dataframe.

    David> Old version (as used with R 1.8.1):

    David>   ## Calculate the % of YLLs for each group in the
    David> cause classification.  x <- tapply(z$yllperdth, z[,
    David> fld], sum) totalYLLs <- sum(x) x <- x / totalYLLs *
    David> 100 x <- sort(x)
  
    David>   ## Plot the chart. horiz = TRUE makes it a bar
    David> instead of ## column chart.  las = 1 prints the
    David> labels horizontally.  xplot <- barplot(x, horiz =
    David> TRUE, xlab = "Percent of YLLs", las = 1)


    David> New Version (as used with R 1.9.0):

    David>   ## Calculate the % of YLLs for each group in the
    David> cause classification.  x <- tapply(z$yllperdth, z[,
    David> fld], sum) totalYLLs <- sum(x) x <- x / totalYLLs *
    David> 100 x <- sort(x)

    David>   causeNames <- names(x) ## NEW BIT x <- matrix(x) ##
    David> NEW BIT
  

    David>   ## Plot the chart. horiz = TRUE makes it a bar
    David> instead of ## column chart.  las = 1 prints the
    David> labels horizontally.  xplot <- barplot(x, beside =
    David> TRUE, ## NEW BIT names.arg = causeNames, ## NEW BIT
    David> horiz = TRUE, xlab = "Percent of YLLs", las = 1)




    >> version
    David>          _ platform i686-pc-linux-gnu arch i686 os
    David> linux-gnu system i686, linux-gnu status major 1 minor
    David> 9.0 year 2004 month 04 day 12 language R


    David> A little while before upgrading I noted my previous R
    David> version (for a post that I redrafted 7 times and
    David> never sent because I found the answer through
    David> refining my draft), and it was:

    >> version
    David>          _ platform i686-pc-linux-gnu arch i686 os
    David> linux-gnu system i686, linux-gnu status Patched major
    David> 1 minor 8.1 year 2004 month 02 day 16 language R

    David> So, can I get the old help files?  Or it is easy to
    David> point me to a documented change?  Or is it clear from
    David> my code what has changed or what I am or was doing
    David> wrong?

    David> Thanks.

    David> Dave

    David> -- David Whiting Dar es Salaam, Tanzania