All:
Following up on my post to the list yesterday and Bill Dunlap's comment
regarding boxplot(), I wanted to let all know that boxplot() is partially
broken, is unlikely to be fixed (Bill said it's been broken for years), and
is not documented (SFAIK). Below is what I have found about the nature of
the problem in fooling around a bit. Fortunately, the workaround is simple:
DO NOT USE NAMED ARGUMENTS in the form name=arg IN THE ... ARGUMENTS OF
BOXPLOT. It should work fine if you adhere to this. (An unnamed list with
named components given as the argument works fine. That is,
boxplot(list(x=1:10)) works fine, but neither boxplot(x=1:10) nor boxplot
(x=list(1:10)) do ).
Examples: (S-Plus 6.1 under WINNT)
Single argument:
> boxplot(1:10) works
> boxplot(x=1:10) doesn't (Fortran "no data" error)
> boxplot(y=1:10) doesn't (S-Plus "argument 'x' is missing" error)
Multiple arguments
>boxplot(1:10,1:10) works
>boxplot(x=1:10,1:10) gives one boxplot and then Fortran error messages:
"Can't change integer to character" and "Error in title"
>boxplot(1:10,x=1:10) is the same as previous
>boxplot(1:10,y=1:10) and boxplot(y=1:10,1:10) both start a graph that is
wrong and then give a bunch of "line out of bounds" warnings before ending
with junk.
>boxplot(x=1:10,y=1:10) and boxplot(y=1:10,x=1:10) both give the Fortran
"no data" error.
Obviously, if these are not bugs and if there's something here that I just
don't get, please let me know.
Cheers,
Bert Gunter
Biometrics Research RY 70-38
Merck & Company
P.O. Box 2000
Rahway, NJ 07065-0900
Phone: (732) 594-7765
mailto: bert_gunter@merck.com
"The business of the statistician is to catalyze the scientific learning
process." -- George E.P. Box
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