[R] lost in plotmath expressions

[S Ellison]

> nams<-c("P2O5 [%]", "D50 [mum]")
These are strings; plotmath is invoked on expressions.
Also, in an expression, [] has special meaning (it's treated as a subscripted index), so a space followed by '[' causes an error and even if that didn't happen, [] would not give units in square brackets.

However, there is (perhaps surprisingly) nothing wrong with horrible constructions like
enams<-c(expression(P[2]*O[5]*" [%]"), expression("D50 ["*mu*"]"))

par(mfrow=c(2,1))
for (i in 1:2) plot(1, 1, xlab=nams[i])

# As far as plotmath is concerned, '*' is represented graphically as implicit multiplication, 
# and since it's just graphical, plotmath doesn’t care that some of the things being multiplied 
# are actually strings.

The plotmath page also has a lot of examples of programmatic substitution in plotmath expressions; they just have to be followed very carefully. 
And ?bquote is also useful for substitution in plotmath...

S Ellison


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