Layout matrix vs par(mfrow)

There are a multitude of ways in which you can divide the plotting area to get multiple plots.

par(mfrow=c()) is one of the most popular: it’s symmetric and very easy to use, you just need to specify the number of rows and columns.

data(iris)
attach(iris)

op <- par(no.readonly = TRUE)
par(mfrow=c(2,3))
plot(Sepal.Length,Sepal.Width)
plot(Sepal.Length,Petal.Length)
plot(Sepal.Length,Petal.Width)
hist(Sepal.Width)
hist(Petal.Length)
hist(Petal.Width)
par(op)ex0

If what you’re looking for is a bit less regular and symmetrical, layout matrix is your friend, and you can control the plotting order of each plotting space through byrow (=T by default)

ex1 <- layout(matrix(c(1:2),1,2),widths=c(0.9,0.1),heights=1)
layout.show(ex1)

layex1

ex2 <- layout(matrix(c(1,1,2,3),2,2,byrow=T),widths=c(0.9,0.1),heights=1)
layout.show(ex2)

layex2
layout(matrix(c(2,0,1,3),2,2,byrow=TRUE), widths=c(1,0.3), heights=c(0.3,1), TRUE)
par(mar=c(0,0,0,0),oma=c(0,0,0,0))
plot(Sepal.Length,Sepal.Width, xlab="Sepal Length", ylab="Sepal Width")
hist(Sepal.Length,axes=FALSE, main="")
plot(NULL, type = "n", axes=F,xlim = c(0, max(x$counts)), ylim = c(range(x$breaks)))
rect(0, x$breaks[1:(length(x$breaks) - 1)], x$counts, x$breaks[2:length(x$breaks)])

ex3 copyThis kind of graph is actually much simpler to do in ggplot2…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Layout matrix also offers much more complicated combinations…

a <- layout(matrix(c(1,1,2,1,1,3,4,5,6),3,3), widths=c(0.5,0.5,0.4), heights=1)
layout.show(a)

ex4TFR 2011 fixed        

ex4 <- layout(matrix(c(1,2,2,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,6,6,6,7,7,7,7,8),10,2, byrow=F))
layout.show(ex4)

ex5