R: Add Points to a Plot

points {graphics} | R Documentation

## Add Points to a Plot

### Description

`points` is a generic function to draw a sequence of points at the specified coordinates. The specified character(s) are plotted, centered at the coordinates.

### Usage

    points(x, ...)

    ## Default S3 method:
    points(x, y = NULL, type = "p", ...)

### Arguments

`x, y` | coordinate vectors of points to plot.
`type` | character indicating the type of plotting; actually any of the `type`s as in `plot.default`.
`...` | Further graphical parameters may also be supplied as arguments. See ‘Details’.

### Details

The coordinates can be passed in a plotting structure (a list with `x` and `y` components), a two-column matrix, a time series, .... See `xy.coords`. If supplied separately, they must be of the same length.

Graphical parameters commonly used are

`pch`

  plotting ‘character’, i.e., symbol to use. This can either be a single character or an integer code for one of a set of graphics symbols. The full set of S symbols is available with `pch=0:18`, see the examples below. (NB: R uses circles instead of the octagons used in S.)

  Value `pch="."` (equivalently `pch = 46`) is handled specially. It is a rectangle of side 0.01 inch (scaled by `cex`). In addition, if `cex = 1` (the default), each side is at least one pixel (1/72 inch on the `pdf`, `postscript` and `xfig` devices).

  For other text symbols, `cex = 1` corresponds to the default fontsize of the device, often specified by an argument `pointsize`. For `pch` in `0:25` the default size is about 75% of the character height (see `par("cin")`).

`col`

  color code or name, see `par`.

`bg`

  background (fill) color for the open plot symbols given by `pch=21:25`.

`cex`

  character (or symbol) expansion: a numerical vector. This works as a multiple of `par("cex")`.

`lwd`

  line width for drawing symbols see `par`.

Others less commonly used are `lty` and `lwd` for types such as `"b"` and `"l"`.

The graphical parameters `pch`, `col`, `bg`, `cex` and `lwd` can be vectors (which will be recycled as needed) giving a value for each point plotted. If lines are to be plotted (e.g. for `type = "b"`) the first element of `lwd` is used.

Points whose `x`, `y`, `pch`, `col` or `cex` value is `NA` are omitted from the plot.

### 'pch' values

Values of `pch` are stored internally as integers. The interpretation is

- `NA_integer_`: no symbol.

- `0:18`: S-compatible vector symbols.

- `19:25`: further R vector symbols.

- `26:31`: unused (and ignored).

- `32:127`: ASCII characters.

- `128:255` native characters only in a single-byte locale and for the symbol font. (`128:159` are only used on Windows.)

- `-32 ...` Unicode point (where supported).

Note that unlike S (which uses octagons), symbols `1`, `10`, `13` and `16` use circles. The filled shapes `15:18` do not include a border.

The following R plotting symbols are can be obtained with `pch=19:25`: those with `21:25` can be colored and filled with different colors: `col` gives the border color and `bg` the background color (which is "grey" in the figure)

- `pch=19`: solid circle,

- `pch=20`: bullet (smaller solid circle, 2/3 the size of `19`),

- `pch=21`: filled circle,

- `pch=22`: filled square,

- `pch=23`: filled diamond,

- `pch=24`: filled triangle point-up,

- `pch=25`: filled triangle point down.

Note that all of these both fill the shape and draw a border. Some care in interpretation is needed when semi-transparent colours are used for both fill and border (and the result might be device-specific and even viewer-specific for `pdf`).

The difference between `pch=16` and `pch=19` is that the latter uses a border and so is perceptibly larger when `lwd` is large relative to `cex`.

Values `pch=26:31` are currently unused and `pch=32:127` give the ASCII characters. In a single-byte locale `pch=128:255` give the corresponding character (if any) in the locale's character set. Where supported by the OS, negative values specify a Unicode point, so e.g. `-0x2642L` is a ‘male sign’ and `-0x20ACL` is the Euro.

A character string consisting of a single character is converted to an integer: `32:127` for ASCII characters, and usually to the Unicode point number otherwise. (In non-Latin-1 single-byte locales, `128:255` will be used for 8-bit characters.)

If `pch` supplied is a logical, integer or character `NA` or an empty character string the point is omitted from the plot.

If `pch` is `NULL` or otherwise of length 0, `par("pch")` is used.

If the symbol font (`par(font = 5)`) is used, numerical values should be used for `pch`: the range is `c(32:126, 160:254)` in all locales (but `240` is not defined (used for ‘apple’ on Mac OS) and `160`, Euro, may not be present).

### Note

A single-byte encoding may include the characters in `pch=128:255`, and if it does, a font may not include all (or even any) of them.

Not all negative numbers are valid as Unicode points, and no check is done. A display device is likely to use a rectangle for (or omit) Unicode points that do not exist or which it does not have a glyph.

What happens for very small or zero values of `cex` is device-dependent: symbols or characters may become invisible or they may be plotted at a fixed minimum size. As from R 2.15.0, circles of zero radius will not be plotted.

### References

Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.

### See Also

`points.formula` for the formula method; `plot`, `lines`, and the underlying workhorse function `plot.xy`.

### Examples

    require(stats) # for rnorm
    plot(-4:4, -4:4, type = "n")# setting up coord. system
    points(rnorm(200), rnorm(200), col = "red")
    points(rnorm(100)/2, rnorm(100)/2, col = "blue", cex = 1.5)

    op <- par(bg = "light blue")
    x <- seq(0,2*pi, len=51)
    ## something "between type='b' and type='o'":
    plot(x, sin(x), type="o", pch=21, bg=par("bg"), col = "blue", cex=.6,
     main='plot(..., type="o", pch=21, bg=par("bg"))')
    par(op)

    ## Not run:
    ## The figure was produced by calls like
    png("pch.png", height=0.7, width = 7, res = 100, units="in")
    par(mar = rep(0,4))
    plot(c(-1, 26), 0:1, type="n", axes= FALSE)
    text(0:25, 0.6, 0:25, cex = 0.5)
    points(0:25, rep(0.3, 26), pch = 0:25, bg = "grey")

    ## End(Not run)

    ##-------- Showing all the extra & some char graphics symbols ---------
    pchShow <-
      function(extras = c("*",".", "o","O","0","+","-","|","%","#"),
               cex = 3, ## good for both .Device=="postscript" and "x11"
               col = "red3", bg = "gold", coltext = "brown", cextext = 1.2,
               main = paste("plot symbols :  points (...  pch = *, cex =",
                            cex,")"))
      {
        nex <- length(extras)
        np  <- 26 + nex
        ipch <- 0:(np-1)
        k <- floor(sqrt(np))
        dd <- c(-1,1)/2
        rx <- dd + range(ix <- ipch %/% k)
        ry <- dd + range(iy <- 3 + (k-1)- ipch %% k)
        pch <- as.list(ipch) # list with integers & strings
        if(nex > 0) pch[26+ 1:nex] <- as.list(extras)
        plot(rx, ry, type="n", axes = FALSE, xlab = "", ylab = "",
             main = main)
        abline(v = ix, h = iy, col = "lightgray", lty = "dotted")
        for(i in 1:np) {
          pc <- pch[[i]]
          ## 'col' symbols with a 'bg'-colored interior (where available) :
          points(ix[i], iy[i], pch = pc, col = col, bg = bg, cex = cex)
          if(cextext > 0)
              text(ix[i] - 0.3, iy[i], pc, col = coltext, cex = cextext)
        }
      }

    pchShow()
    pchShow(c("o","O","0"), cex = 2.5)
    pchShow(NULL, cex = 4, cextext = 0, main = NULL)

    ## ------------ test code for various pch specifications -------------
    # Try this in various font families (including Hershey)
    # and locales.  Use sign=-1 asserts we want Latin-1.
    # Standard cases in a MBCS locale will not plot the top half.
    TestChars <- function(sign=1, font=1, ...)
    {
       MB <- l10n_info()$MBCS
       r <- if(font == 5) { sign <- 1; c(32:126, 160:254)
           } else if(MB) 32:126 else 32:255
       if (sign == -1) r <- c(32:126, 160:255)
       par(pty="s")
       plot(c(-1,16), c(-1,16), type="n", xlab="",ylab="", xaxs="i", yaxs="i",
            main=sprintf("sign = %d, font = %d", sign,font))
       grid(17, 17, lty=1) ; mtext(paste("MBCS:", MB))
       for(i in r) try(points(i%%16, i%/%16, pch=sign*i, font=font,...))
    }
    TestChars()
    try(TestChars(sign=-1))
    TestChars(font=5) # Euro might be at 160 (0+10*16).  Mac OS has apple at 240 (0+15*16).
    try(TestChars(-1, font=2))# bold

[Package graphics version 2.15.1 Index]