[R] How to do a pretty panel plot?

[Jakson Alves de Aquino]

Ajay Shah wrote:
> Here's my best version of your code:
> 
> ## Data
> M <- structure(list(date = structure(c(13634, 13665, 13695, 13726, 
>                       13757, 13787, 13818, 13848, 13879, 13910, 13939, 13970, 14000, 
>                       14031, 14061, 14092, 14123, 14153, 14184, 14214, 14245, 14276, 
>                       14304, 14335), class = "Date"),
>                     cospi = c(1987.31, 2033.37, 2140.13, 
>                       2120.66, 2427.09, 2917.7, 2915.28, 3262.06, 2616.26, 2617.75, 
>                       2277.69, 2538.13, 2374.09, 1911.22, 2063.73, 2081.28, 1813.58, 
>                       1304.96, 1219.73, 1361.74, 1299.2, 1242.74, 1339.18, 1557.29), 
>                     cospi.PE = c(19.2, 19.69, 20.13, 24.08, 27.61, 30.9, 30.69, 
>                       34.92, 26.95, 27.63, 23.86, 26.14, 23.72, 19.5, 23.43, 23.73, 
>                       20.69, 16.4, 16.12, 18.04, 18.46, 18.86, 20.24, 23.53)),
>                .Names = c("date", "cospi", "cospi.PE"),
>                row.names = 209:232, class = "data.frame")
> 
> ## Set up par's to make 2 panel chart 
> par(bty="l"); par(ps=10)
> par(mfrow=c(2,1))           # try to get two plots, one above the other 
> par(mar=c(0,4,0,1))         ## Set par(mar) to eliminate X axis gap 
> par(oma=c(2,2,2,2))
> 
> ## Make Plot 1
> plot(M$date, M$cospi, type="l", log="y", 
>      xaxs="i", yaxs="i", axes=F, lwd=2,
>      ylab="Cospi level") 
> axis(1, col="grey", at=NULL, labels=FALSE) 
> axis(2, col="black", labels=TRUE) 
> axis(3, col="grey", labels=TRUE)
> grid(col = "lightgrey", lty=1)
> box(col = "grey")
> 
> ## Adjust par(mar) for 2nd plot
> par(mar=c(2,4,0,1))
> 
> ## Second plot
> plot(M$date, M$cospi.PE, type="l", col="black", log="y", 
>      xaxs="i", yaxs="i", axes=F, lwd=2,
>      ylab="Cospi P/E") 
> axis(2, col="black", at=NULL, labels=T) 
> axis(1, col="lightgrey", at=NULL, labels=T)
> grid(col = "lightgrey", lty=1)
> box(col = "grey")
> 

I think it's better if the lines are above the grid:

## Data
M <- structure(list(date = structure(c(13634, 13665, 13695, 13726,
        13757, 13787, 13818, 13848, 13879, 13910, 13939, 13970, 14000,
        14031, 14061, 14092, 14123, 14153, 14184, 14214, 14245, 14276,
        14304, 14335), class = "Date"),
    cospi = c(1987.31, 2033.37, 2140.13,
      2120.66, 2427.09, 2917.7, 2915.28, 3262.06, 2616.26, 2617.75,
      2277.69, 2538.13, 2374.09, 1911.22, 2063.73, 2081.28, 1813.58,
      1304.96, 1219.73, 1361.74, 1299.2, 1242.74, 1339.18, 1557.29),
    cospi.PE = c(19.2, 19.69, 20.13, 24.08, 27.61, 30.9, 30.69,
      34.92, 26.95, 27.63, 23.86, 26.14, 23.72, 19.5, 23.43, 23.73,
      20.69, 16.4, 16.12, 18.04, 18.46, 18.86, 20.24, 23.53)),
  .Names = c("date", "cospi", "cospi.PE"),
  row.names = 209:232, class = "data.frame")

## Set up par's to make 2 panel chart
par(bty="l")
par(ps=10)
par(mfrow=c(2,1))       # try to get two plots, one above the other
par(mar=c(0,4,0,1))     ## Set par(mar) to eliminate X axis gap
par(oma=c(2,2,2,2))

## Make Plot 1
plot(M$date, M$cospi, type="l", log="y", xaxs="i", yaxs="i", axes=F,
  lwd=0, ylab="Cospi level")
grid(col = "lightgrey", lty=1)
lines(M$date, M$cospi, type="l", lwd=2)
axis(1, col="grey", at=NULL, labels=FALSE)
axis(2, col="black", labels=TRUE)
axis(3, col="grey", labels=TRUE)
box(col = "grey")

## Adjust par(mar) for 2nd plot
par(mar=c(2,4,0,1))

## Second plot
plot(M$date, M$cospi.PE, type="l", col="black", log="y",
  xaxs="i", yaxs="i", axes=F, lwd=0, ylab="Cospi P/E")
grid(col = "lightgrey", lty=1)
lines(M$date, M$cospi.PE, col="black", lwd=2)
axis(2, col="black", at=NULL, labels=T)