R: Draw Function Plots

curve {graphics} | R Documentation

## Draw Function Plots

### Description

Draws a curve corresponding to a function over the interval `[from, to]`. `curve` can plot also an expression in the variable `xname`, default x.

### Usage

    curve(expr, from = NULL, to = NULL, n = 101, add = FALSE,
          type = "l", xname = "x", xlab = xname, ylab = NULL,
          log = NULL, xlim = NULL, ...)

    ## S3 method for class 'function'
    plot(x, y = 0, to = 1, from = y, xlim = NULL, ylab = NULL, ...)

### Arguments

`expr` | The name of a function, or a call or an expression written as a function of `x` which will evaluate to an object of the same length as `x`.
`x` | a ‘vectorizing’ numeric R function.
`y` | alias for `from` for compatibility with `plot`
`from, to` | the range over which the function will be plotted.
`n` | integer; the number of x values at which to evaluate.
`add` | logical; if `TRUE` add to an already existing plot; if `NA` start a new plot taking the defaults for the limits and log-scaling of the x-axis from the previous plot. Taken as `FALSE` (with a warning if a different value is supplied) if no graphics device is open.
`xlim` | `NULL` or a numeric vector of length 2; if non-`NULL` it provides the defaults for `c(from, to)` and, unless `add = TRUE`, selects the x-limits of the plot – see `plot.window`.
`type` | plot type: see `plot.default`.
`xname` | character string giving the name to be used for the x axis.
`xlab, ylab, log, ...` | labels and graphical parameters can also be specified as arguments. See ‘Details’ for the interpretation of the default for `log`. For the `"function"` method of `plot`, `...` can include any of the other arguments of `curve`, except `expr`.

### Details

The function or expression `expr` (for `curve`) or function `x` (for `plot`) is evaluated at `n` points equally spaced over the range `[from, to]`. The points determined in this way are then plotted.

If either `from` or `to` is `NULL`, it defaults to the corresponding element of `xlim` if that is not `NULL`.

What happens when neither `from`/`to` nor `xlim` specifies both x-limits is a complex story. For `plot(<function>)` and for `curve(add = FALSE)` the defaults are (0, 1). For `curve(add = NA)` and `curve(add = TRUE)` the defaults are taken from the x-limits used for the previous plot. (This differs from versions of R prior to 2.14.0.)

The value of `log` is used both to specify the plot axes (unless `add = TRUE`) and how ‘equally spaced’ is interpreted: if the x component indicates log-scaling, the points at which the expression or function is plotted are equally spaced on log scale.

The default value of `log` is taken from the current plot when `add = TRUE`, whereas if `add = NA` the x component is taken from the existing plot (if any) and the y component defaults to linear. For `add = FALSE` the default is `""`

This used to be a quick hack which now seems to serve a useful purpose, but can give bad results for functions which are not smooth.

For expensive-to-compute `expr`essions, you should use smarter tools.

The way `curve` handles `expr` has caused confusion. It first looks to see if `expr` is a name (also known as a symbol), in which case it is taken to be the name of a function, and `expr` is replaced by a call to `expr` with a single argument with name given by `xname`. Otherwise it checks that `expr` is either a call or an expression, and that it contains a reference to the variable given by `xname` (using `all.vars`): anything else is an error. Then `expr` is evaluated in an environment which supplies a vector of name given by `xname` of length `n`, and should evaluate to an object of length `n`. Note that this means that `curve(x, ...)` is taken as a request to plot a function named `x` (and it is used as such in the `function` method for `plot`).

As from R 2.14.0 the `plot` method can be called directly as `plot.function`.

### Value

A list with components `x` and `y` of the points that were drawn is returned invisibly.

### Warning

For historical reasons, `add` is allowed as an argument to the `"function"` method of `plot`, but its behaviour may surprise you. It is recommended to use `add` only with `curve`.

### See Also

`splinefun` for spline interpolation, `lines`.

### Examples

    plot(qnorm) # default range c(0, 1) is appropriate here,
                # but end values are -/+Inf and so are omitted.
    plot(qlogis, main = "The Inverse Logit : qlogis()")
    abline(h = 0, v = 0:2/2, lty = 3, col = "gray")

    curve(sin, -2*pi, 2*pi, xname = "t")
    curve(tan, xname = "t", add = NA,
          main = "curve(tan)  --> same x-scale as previous plot")

    op <- par(mfrow = c(2, 2))
    curve(x^3 - 3*x, -2, 2)
    curve(x^2 - 2, add = TRUE, col = "violet")

    ## simple and advanced versions, quite similar:
    plot(cos, -pi,  3*pi)
    curve(cos, xlim = c(-pi, 3*pi), n = 1001, col = "blue", add = TRUE)

    chippy <- function(x) sin(cos(x)*exp(-x/2))
    curve(chippy, -8, 7, n = 2001)
    plot (chippy, -8, -5)

    for(ll in c("", "x", "y", "xy"))
       curve(log(1+x), 1, 100, log = ll,
             sub = paste("log= '", ll, "'", sep = ""))
    par(op)

[Package graphics version 2.15.1 Index]