Line Graph represents relation between two variables.

Plot a line graph in R

We shall learn to plot a line graph in R programming language with the help of plot() function.

Syntax of plot() function

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 plot(x, y, ...)

where

  • x is any R object with a plot method. Ex : numeric vector
  • y is any R object with a plot method. Ex : numeric vector
  • … is the extra arguments that could be provided, which may contain any of the following
    • type  – type could be any of the below values
      • ‘p’ – points
      • ‘l’ – lines
      • ‘b’ – both points and lines
      • ‘c’ – for the lines part alone of both points and lines
      • ‘o’ – for both points and lines overplotted
      • ‘h’ – generates kind of histogram view
      • ‘s’ – for stair step look
      • ‘S’ – other steps
      • ‘n’ – no plotting
    • main is the main title for the plot
    • sub is the sub title for the plot
    • xlab is the x label i.e., title for x-axis
    • ylab is the y label i.e., title for y-axis
    • asp is the aspect ratio whose value should be given by y/x
    • lwd is the line width
    • pch is the point character. There are 25 symbols to choose from including alphabetic characters
    • col gives the color to points and line

Example 1 : Line Graph

In this example, we will use plot() and draw a line graph.

example.R – R Program

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# R program to plot line graph
x = c(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11)
y = c(22,13,5,9,25,22,26,1,9,10,2)

# plot function
# except x,y ; rest are optional
plot(x, y, type='b', main='First Plot Example', sub='Line Graph', xlab='time', ylab='cost', asp=1)

When the above program is run, plot would be generated as a pdf file, by default.

Line Graph Plot using R programming language

Example 2 : Line, No points, Colored line

In this example, we will use plot() and draw a line graph. We will draw the line graph with a colored line and no points.

example.R – R Program

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# R program to plot line graph
x = c(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11)
y = c(22,13,5,9,25,22,26,1,9,10,2)

# plot function
# except x,y ; rest are optional
plot(x, y, type='l', col='#ff0000')

Output  Line Graph Plot

Colored Line Graph Plot using R programming language

Example 3 : Points, No Line, Colored points

In this example, we will use plot() and draw a line graph. We will draw the line graph with colored points and no line.

example.R – R Program

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# R program to plot line graph
x = c(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11)
y = c(22,13,5,9,25,22,26,1,9,10,2)

# plot function
# except x,y ; rest are optional
plot(x, y, type='p', col='#0000ff')

Output  Point Graph Plot

Colored Points Graph Plot using R programming language

Example 4 : Stair Step Graph

In this example, we will use plot() and draw a stair step graph.

example.R – R Program

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# R program to plot stair graph
x = c(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11)
y = c(22,13,5,9,25,22,26,1,9,10,2)

# plot function
plot(x, y, type='s', col='#0000ff')

Output  Stair Graph Plot

Stair Plot Graph using R programming language

Conclusion

In this R Tutorial, we have leaned R plot function and some of the examples like plotting with both line and points, coloring the graph, drawing only points or lines on to the graph, etc.