[R] why are my multiple box & whisker plots so small?

[rolf at math.unb.ca]

> I'm sure this is reallly basic, but I just can get it to work. I want
> to plot six box & whisker plots together to make one figure so that
> they appear one below the next.
> 
> I can do this using >par(mfrow=c(6,1)), but each box&whisker plots
> end up vertically compressed to the point where I can't see the
> actual bars, and there is a large amount of white space between each
> one.
> 
> I have tried reducing the margins using "mar", but nothing happens.

	You must be plotting them verically --- which is silly.
	There is simply no room to stack them vertically above each
	other.  This is a sub-optimal way of going at it anyway.

	I.e. you could do:

	par(mfrow=c(6,1),mar=c(0,3,0,2))
	boxplot(x1,horizontal=TRUE)
                .
                .
                .
	boxplot(x6,horizontal=TRUE)

	where x1, ..., x6 are your 6 data sets, and get an
	almost-reasonable plot.  But the axes are cramped and the
	alignment is out of whack.

	Much better to do:

	boxplot(list(x1,x2,x3,x4,x5,x6),horizontal=TRUE)

	the possibility of which is indicated in the help,
	which I suggest you read.

> I've also tried using "plt" to make the plot area bigger, but this
> has no effect either.

	If things don't fit, they don't fit.  Wonderful as it is,
	R can't work magic.

				cheers,

					Rolf Turner
					rolf at math.unb.ca