Plotting two xts objects

Question

I'm using xtsExtra to plot two xts objects.

Consider the following call to plot.xts:

plot.xts(merge(a,b),screens=c(1,2))

which is used to plot the xts objects a and b in two separate panels.

How do I control the spacing of the y-axes? Specifically, I'm running into the problem where the y-axis labels come too close or even overlap.

Ideally, I would like to specify a minimum padding which is to be maintained between the two y-axis labels. Any help is appreciated!

EDIT: A reproducible example:

#install if needed
#install.packages("xtsExtra", repos="http://R-Forge.R-project.org")
library(xtsExtra)

ab=structure(c(-1, 0.579760106421202, -0.693649703427259, 0.0960078627769613, 
0.829770469089809, -0.804276208608663, 0.72574639798749, 0.977165659135716, 
-0.880178529686181, -0.662078620277974, -1, 2.35268982675599, 
-0.673979231663719, 0.0673890875594205, 1.46584597734824, 0.38403707067242, 
-1.53638088345349, 0.868743976582955, -1.8394614923913, 0.246736581314485
), .Dim = c(10L, 2L), .Dimnames = list(NULL, c("a", "b")), index = structure(c(1354683600, 
1354770000, 1354856400, 1354942800, 1355029200, 1355115600, 1355202000, 
1355288400, 1355374800, 1355461200), tzone = "", tclass = "Date"), class = c("xts", 
"zoo"), .indexCLASS = "Date", .indexTZ = "", tclass = "Date", tzone = "")

plot.xts(ab,screens=c(1,2))

which produces:

y-axis labels too close

@Julian why you don't give a reprodicible example ? a and b? — agstudy, Dec 04 '12 at 22:37
Here's a method that might be useful. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5479822/plotting-4-curves-in-a-single-plot-with-3-y-axes-in-r/5480489#5480489 — bill_080, Dec 04 '12 at 22:55
@bill_080 I don't see how this code is adjusting the yaxis range. Are you talking about this call? `yaxisdat<-seq(pardat$yaxp[1],pardat$yaxp[2],(pardat$yaxp[2]-pardat$yaxp[1])/pardat$yaxp[3]` I'm having trouble dissecting the code. — Julian, Dec 04 '12 at 23:56
@GSee Thank you! I'll do that if no other solution comes up but this is obviously not the best solution to this problem :) — Julian, Dec 04 '12 at 23:58
@Julian, The idea is that with that method, you have 100% control over the format of the plot. I will add an answer using your example. — bill_080, Dec 05 '12 at 00:27

bill_080 · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-05T15:50:42.550

Sorry this took so long. I was trying to figure out why my graph starts at Dec 04, 2012 and ends at Dec 13, 2012, when yours starts at Dec 05, 2012 and ends at Dec 14 2012. Can you check to make sure that the ab you posted above is the same ab you used to plot your graph?

Also, I used library xts instead of xtsExtra. Is there a reason to use xtsExtra ?

Here's the code:

library(xts)

ab=structure(c(-1, 0.579760106421202, -0.693649703427259, 0.0960078627769613, 
           0.829770469089809, -0.804276208608663, 0.72574639798749, 0.977165659135716, 
           -0.880178529686181, -0.662078620277974, -1, 2.35268982675599, 
           -0.673979231663719, 0.0673890875594205, 1.46584597734824, 0.38403707067242, 
           -1.53638088345349, 0.868743976582955, -1.8394614923913, 0.246736581314485), .Dim = c(10L, 2L), .Dimnames = list(NULL, c("a", "b")), index = structure(c(1354683600, 
          1354770000, 1354856400, 1354942800, 1355029200, 1355115600, 1355202000, 
          1355288400, 1355374800, 1355461200), tzone = "", tclass = "Date"), class = c("xts", 
          "zoo"), .indexCLASS = "Date", .indexTZ = "", tclass = "Date", tzone = "")

#Set up the plot area so that multiple graphs can be crammed together
#In the "par()" statement below, the "mar=c(0.3, 0, 0, 0)" part is used to change
#the spacing between the graphs.   "mar=c(0, 0, 0, 0)" is zero spacing.
par(pty="m", plt=c(0.1, 0.9, 0.1, 0.9), omd=c(0.1, 0.9, 0.2, 0.9), mar=c(0.3, 0, 0, 0))

#Set the area up for 2 plots
par(mfrow = c(2, 1))

#Build the x values so that plot() can be used, allowing more control over the format
xval <- index(ab)

#Plot the top graph with nothing in it =========================
plot(x=xval, y=ab$a, type="n", xaxt="n", yaxt="n", main="", xlab="", ylab="")
mtext(text="ab", side=3, font=2, line=0.5, cex=1.5)

#Store the x-axis data of the top plot so it can be used on the other graphs
pardat <- par()

#Layout the x axis tick marks
xaxisdat <- index(ab)

#If you want the default plot tick mark locations, un-comment the following calculation
#xaxisdat <- seq(pardat$xaxp[1], pardat$xaxp[2], (pardat$xaxp[2]-pardat$xaxp[1])/pardat$xaxp[3])

#Get the y-axis data and add the lines and label
yaxisdat <- seq(pardat$yaxp[1], pardat$yaxp[2], (pardat$yaxp[2]-pardat$yaxp[1])/pardat$yaxp[3])
axis(side=2, at=yaxisdat, las=2, padj=0.5, cex.axis=0.8, hadj=0.5, tcl=-0.3)
abline(v=xaxisdat, col="lightgray")
abline(h=yaxisdat, col="lightgray")
mtext(text="ab$a", side=2, line=2.3)
lines(x=xval, y=ab$a, col="red")
box() #Draw an outline to make sure that any overlapping abline(v)'s or abline(h)'s are covered

#Plot the 2nd graph with nothing in it ================================
plot(x=xval, y=ab$b,  type="n", xaxt="n", yaxt="n", main="", xlab="", ylab="")

#Get the y-axis data and add the lines and label
pardat <- par()
yaxisdat <- seq(pardat$yaxp[1], pardat$yaxp[2], (pardat$yaxp[2]-pardat$yaxp[1])/pardat$yaxp[3])
axis(side=2, at=yaxisdat, las=2, padj=0.5, cex.axis=0.8, hadj=0.5, tcl=-0.3)
abline(v=xaxisdat, col="lightgray")
abline(h=yaxisdat, col="lightgray")
mtext(text="ab$b", side=2, line=2.3)
lines(x=xval, y=ab$b, col="blue")
box() #Draw an outline to make sure that any overlapping abline(v)'s or abline(h)'s are covered

#Plot the X axis =================================================
axis(side=1, label=format(as.Date(xaxisdat), "%b %d\n%Y\n") , at=xaxisdat, padj=0.4, cex.axis=0.8, hadj=0.5, tcl=-0.3)
mtext(text="Date", side=1, line=2.5)

enter image description here

`xtsExtra` has a new `plot.xts` method that was created as part of a Google Summer of Code project. See http://blog.fosstrading.com/2012/08/a-new-plot-xts.html — GSee, Dec 05 '12 at 02:10
@GSee Apparently, `xtsExtra` doesn't run under R-2.14. I'll have to update my version of R. — bill_080, Dec 05 '12 at 02:21
It has one occurrence of `paste0` (which was introduced in R-2.15) in `xtsExtra/R/plot.R`. It's possible that replacing that with `paste(..., sep="")` would be enough to use R-2.14 — GSee, Dec 05 '12 at 02:30

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 05 '12 at 02:25

1

I play with some parameters

   plot.xts(ab, bty = "n",    las = 1,     cex.axis = 0.5 )

enter image description here

answered Dec 05 '12 at 02:25

agstudy

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 16 '14 at 10:21

I gave up plotting with xts because of the poor formatting in the y axis. Exactly the same problem mentioned in this question.

autoplot.zoo has been a nice alternative.

library(ggplot2)
autoplot.zoo(ab) + theme(panel.background = element_blank(),
                         panel.grid.major = element_blank(),
                         panel.grid.minor = element_blank()) +
                         theme_bw()

enter image description here

Plotting two xts objects

3 Answers3

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