[R] Jump between figures in multifigure environment

[Paul Murrell]

In practice, I have never used 'mfg', but one thing it allows you to do 
is to use the figures defined by par(mfrow/mfcol) in whatever order you 
like (rather than just by row or by column).

Paul

On 13/11/25 10:25, Naresh Gurbuxani wrote:
> Paul,
> 
> First solution works for me.  To change something in an earlier figure, I can start over and redraw all figures.
> 
> In practice, how is mfg used?
> 
> Thanks,
> Naresh
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Nov 12, 2025, at 3:04 PM, Paul Murrell <paul using stat.auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> Base graphics is designed for drawing everything in a figure before moving on to the next figure.  Also, 'mfg' can only be set via par().
>> Are you looking for something like this ... ?
>>
>>
>> par(mfrow = c(2, 2))
>> for (i in 1:2) {
>>     for (j in 1:2) {
>>         par(mfg = c(i, j))
>>         plot(c(0, 1), c(0, 1), type = "n")
>>         text(0.5, 0.5, labels = paste("(", i, ",", j, ")"))
>>     }
>> }
>>
>>
>> If you really want to revisit previous figures, you might try split.screen(), but it is pretty fragile and, as the example below shows, still not designed for revisiting a previous *plot* (just a previous figure region) ...
>>
>>
>> split.screen(c(2, 2))
>> for (i in 1:4) {
>>     screen(i)
>>     plot(c(0, 1), c(0, 1), type = "n")
>> }
>> for (i in 1:2) {
>>     for (j in 1:2) {
>>         screen(2*(i - 1) + j)
>>         text(0.5, 0.5, labels = paste("(", i, ",", j, ")"))
>>     }
>> }
>>
>>
>> If you REALLY want to revisit previous drawing, you might need to look at {grid} viewports, which are designed to allow you to get back to the original drawing context ...
>>
>>
>> library(grid)
>> grid.newpage()
>> pushViewport(viewport(layout=grid.layout(2, 2)))
>> for (i in 1:2) {
>>     for (j in 1:2) {
>>         pushViewport(viewport(layout.pos.row=i, layout.pos.col=j,
>>                               name=paste0(i, j)))
>>         grid.rect(width=.8, height=.8)
>>         upViewport()
>>     }
>> }
>> for (i in 1:2) {
>>     for (j in 1:2) {
>>         downViewport(paste0(i, j))
>>         grid.text(paste("(", i, ",", j, ")"))
>>         upViewport()
>>     }
>> }
>>
>>
>> Paul
>>
>>
>>> On 13/11/25 07:28, Naresh Gurbuxani wrote:
>>> After drawing multiple figures, I want to select an earlier figure to add some low level commands.  Using mfg parameter runs all commands in the most recent figure only.  How can an earlier figure be selected?
>>> Thanks,
>>> Naresh
>>> par(mfrow = c(2, 2))
>>> for (i in 1:4) plot(c(0, 1), c(0, 1), type = "n”)
>>> for (i in 1:2) {for (j in 1:2) text(0.5, 0.5, labels = paste("(", i, ",", j, ")"), mfg = c(i, j, 2, 2))}
>>> #All text is in bottom right figure only
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide https://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>> --
>> Dr Paul Murrell (he/him)
>> Te Kura Tatauranga | Department of Statistics
>> Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of Auckland
>> Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
>> 64 9 3737599 x85392
>> paul using stat.auckland.ac.nz
>> www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/
>>

-- 
Dr Paul Murrell (he/him)
Te Kura Tatauranga | Department of Statistics
Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
64 9 3737599 x85392
paul using stat.auckland.ac.nz
www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/