[R] Plotting Example Fail

[William Dunlap]

rpois(100, 5) gives a different set of random numbers each time it is
called, so if you want repeatable results compute it once and use its
value in the calls to plot.  E.g.,
   r <- rpois(100, 5)
   plot(table(r), type="h", col="red", lwd=10, main="hello")
Bill Dunlap
TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com


On Tue, Nov 24, 2015 at 11:47 AM, Timothy D. Legg <r at timothylegg.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am quite new to R and have high expectations for my future with it.
>
> R version 3.0.2 (2013-09-25) -- "Frisbee Sailing"
> Copyright (C) 2013 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
> Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)
>
> I have stepped back to an earlier tutorial and found an odd inconsistency
> with one of the examples:
>
> plot(table(rpois(100, 5)), type = "h", col = "red", lwd = 10, main =
> "rpois(100, lambda = 5)")
>
> I read the local documentation on the plot command and it's arguments.
> >From that, I learned that 'main' defines the title from a text string.  I
> decide to modify some values to see how the resulting behavior changes.
> What I didn't expect was that modifying the text string caused the chart
> to change greatly.
>
> plot(table(rpois(100, 5)), type = "h", col = "red", lwd = 10, main =
> "rpois(100, lambda = 4)")
>
> With the previous line, the columns change values.
>
> plot(table(rpois(100, 5)), type = "h", col = "red", lwd = 10, main = "hello")
>
> This line even adds a 12th column.
>
> I return to plot the original and the output has changed again.   Here are
> some screenshots
>
> http://timothylegg.com/R/lambda5_.png
> http://timothylegg.com/R/lambda5.png
> http://timothylegg.com/R/lambda4.png
> http://timothylegg.com/R/hello.png
>
> What am I doing wrong to get inconsistent results like this?  I'm very new
> to R and really hoping that this is a misunderstanding on my part.
>
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