[R] Greek characters in plots

[Prof Brian Ripley]

You need R >= 2.7 on Windows, but it works for me on both XP and Vista.

As the posting guide says, we assume that you have an up-to-date R.

On Tue, 5 Aug 2008, michael watson (IAH-C) wrote:

> Hi Brian
>
> Thanks again for the advice, it is appreciated.
>
> I had come across U0394 code through the character map, but I get:
>
>> "\u0394"
> Error: invalid \uxxxx sequence
>
> So when I execute your code, I get:
>> a <- "A)"
>> b <- "stbA::cat"
>> paste(a, "\u0394", b)
> Error: invalid \uxxxx sequence
>
> This is on both Rgui at home and at work (Windows Vista and R 2.6 at home, Windows XP and R 2.7 at work)
>
> Thanks again, Gabor's suggestion worked.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Prof Brian Ripley [mailto:ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk]
> Sent: Tue 05/08/2008 7:44 PM
> To: michael watson (IAH-C)
> Cc: Henrique Dallazuanna; r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: RE: [R] Greek characters in plots
>
> On Tue, 5 Aug 2008, michael watson (IAH-C) wrote:
>
>> OK, I am definitely struggling here.
>>
>> The text I am trying to plot isn't a mathematical expression, it's:
>>
>> A) ?stbA::cat
>
> OK, so you want a Greek character and not a Greek symbol.  As I said they
> are different (different fonts, different shapes aka glyphs).
>
>> This is biological notation for a particular mutation.  The "A)" part is
>> a tag identifying the graph, and the "stbA::cat" bit is the gene that is
>> mutated.  Both the tag and gene are set as variables in a loop, and only
>> the delta remains the same.
>>
>> As the text I am trying to plot isn't a mathematical expression, I seem
>> to be having trouble getting substitute() and expression() to do what I
>> want.  As plotmath states "A mathematical expression must obey the
>> normal rules of syntax for any R expression", I fear I may be barking up
>> the wrong tree!
>>
>> Thank you all for your help so far, but can someone please help me once
>> more and tell me how I can get the capital Delta symbol so I can use it
>> in non-mathematical text and strings for plotting?
>
> a <- "A)"
> b <- "stbA::cat"
> paste(a, "\u0394", b)
>
> (Number from http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/greek.html .)  This should
> work in a UTF-8 locale and also on Windows (in a windows() device or in
> the Rgui console).
>
>>
>> Thanks once again
>>
>> Mick
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Prof Brian Ripley [mailto:ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk]
>> Sent: 05 August 2008 12:40
>> To: michael watson (IAH-C)
>> Cc: Henrique Dallazuanna; r-help at r-project.org
>> Subject: Re: [R] Greek characters in plots
>>
>> On Tue, 5 Aug 2008, michael watson (IAH-C) wrote:
>>
>>> Excellent!  I even tried DELTA but not Delta....
>>
>> ?plotmath says
>>
>>       'Alpha' - 'Omega'               uppercase Greek symbols
>>
>> How could that be made clearer?
>>
>> (Note it carefully says Greek *symbols* not *character*: they are not the
>> same thing.)
>>
>>> Now, how do I go about pasting that with some text that I have in various other variables?
>>
>> Use substitute?  E.g.
>>
>> substitute(expression(foo*Delta), list(foo=3))
>>
>> (Some people prefer bquote, but that is just a wrapper for substitute in
>> R.)
>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Henrique Dallazuanna [mailto:wwwhsd at gmail.com]
>>> Sent: 05 August 2008 12:17
>>> To: michael watson (IAH-C)
>>> Cc: r-help at r-project.org
>>> Subject: Re: [R] Greek characters in plots
>>>
>>> Try,
>>>
>>> expression(Delta)
>>>
>>> On Tue, Aug 5, 2008 at 8:14 AM, michael watson (IAH-C)
>>> <michael.watson at bbsrc.ac.uk> wrote:
>>>> Hi
>>>>
>>>> I am running an R script that creates 100s of graphs, and I need to use
>>>> the greek CAPITAL letter delta in the mtext() function.
>>>>
>>>> I got as far as expression(delta) but this gives me the lowercase
>>>> version.
>>>>
>>>> Can anyone help?  I'm using R 2.7 on Windows XP
>>>>
>>>> Mick
>>>>
>>>> Head of Informatics
>>>> Institute for Animal Health
>>>> Compton
>>>> Berks
>>>> RG20 7NN
>>>> 01635 578411
>>>>
>>>> http://www.iah.ac.uk/research/bioinformatics/bioinf.shtml
>>>>
>>>> The information contained in this message may be confide...{{dropped:14}}
>>>>
>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Henrique Dallazuanna
>>> Curitiba-Paraná-Brasil
>>> 25° 25' 40" S 49° 16' 22" O
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>
>>
>> --
>> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
>> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
>> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
>> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
>> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
>>
>
> -- 
> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
>
>

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595