R help - Jun 2007 - changing the position of the y label (ylab)

How can I change the position of the ylab, after
enlarging the margins with par(mar=...)? 

Here is the relevant code snippet

----
par(mar=c(5.1,5.1,4.1,2.1))
plot(c(1979,2003),c(40,50),ylim=c(1,73),lab=c(20,10,1),pch=21,col='blue',bg='blue',axes=FALSE,xlab="Years",ylab="Onset/Withdrawl
Date",font.lab=2)
box()
axis(1,las=2)
axis(2,las=2,labels=c('JAN','FEB','MAR','APR','MAY','JUN','JUL','AUG','SEP','OCT','NOV','DEC','JAN'),at=seq(from=1,to=73,by=6))
axis(3,labels=FALSE)
axis(4,labels=FALSE,at=seq(from=1,to=73,by=6))
----

Thanks

Thanks (Merci) Christophe!

that did it

--- Christophe Bonenfant
<bonenfan at biomserv.univ-lyon1.fr> wrote:
> Hi Etienne - consider to use the mtext function:
> 
>  > par(mar=c(5.1,5.1,4.1,2.1))
>  >
>
plot(c(1979,2003),c(40,50),ylim=c(1,73),lab=c(20,10,1),
>
pch=21,col='blue',bg='blue',axes=FALSE,xlab="",ylab="",font.lab=2)
>  > box()
>  > axis(1,las=2)
>  >
>
axis(2,las=2,labels=c('JAN','FEB','MAR','APR','MAY','JUN','JUL',
>
'AUG','SEP','OCT','NOV','DEC','JAN'),at=seq(from=1,to=73,by=6))
>  > axis(3,labels=FALSE)
>  > axis(4,labels=FALSE,at=seq(from=1,to=73,by=6))
>  > mtext("Years", 1, 3.5, cex = 1.7)
> # first interger is the axis number, second number
> is the distance to 
> the axis
>  > mtext("Onset/Withdrawl Date", 2, 4, cex = 1.7)
> 
> see ?mtext
> 
> Christophe
> 
> Etienne a ?crit :
> > How can I change the position of the ylab, after
> > enlarging the margins with par(mar=...)? 
> > 
> > Here is the relevant code snippet
> > 
> > ----
> > par(mar=c(5.1,5.1,4.1,2.1))
> >
>
plot(c(1979,2003),c(40,50),ylim=c(1,73),lab=c(20,10,1),pch=21,col='blue',bg='blue',axes=FALSE,xlab="Years",ylab="Onset/Withdrawl
> > Date",font.lab=2)
> > box()
> > axis(1,las=2)
> >
>
axis(2,las=2,labels=c('JAN','FEB','MAR','APR','MAY','JUN','JUL','AUG','SEP','OCT','NOV','DEC','JAN'),at=seq(from=1,to=73,by=6))
> > axis(3,labels=FALSE)
> > axis(4,labels=FALSE,at=seq(from=1,to=73,by=6))
> > ----
> > 
> > Thanks
> > 
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> > PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained,
> reproducible code.
> > 
> > 
>

If by 'position' you mean the distance from the axes, I think
'mgp' is the
argument you are looking for (see ?par)-

You can set this in par(), plot() [which will affect both x and y labels], or
title():

par(mar=rep(6,4))
plot(NA,NA,xlim=0:1,ylim=0:1,xlab="X",ylab="")
title(ylab="Y2",mgp=c(4,1,0))

if you want to change 'position' parallel to the axis, then you probably
have
to do
plot(...,xlab="",ylab="")

and set labels using mtext(); playing around with the 'adj' argument.

Btw, you can use '\n' to denote new line:
title(ylab="Onset/Withdrawl\nDate",mgp=c(4,1,0))


--- Etienne <etiennesky at yahoo.com> wrote:
> How can I change the position of the ylab, after
> enlarging the margins with par(mar=...)? 
> 
> Here is the relevant code snippet
> 
> ----
> par(mar=c(5.1,5.1,4.1,2.1))
>
plot(c(1979,2003),c(40,50),ylim=c(1,73),lab=c(20,10,1),pch=21,col='blue',bg='blue',axes=FALSE,xlab="Years",ylab="Onset/Withdrawl
> Date",font.lab=2)
> box()
> axis(1,las=2)
>
axis(2,las=2,labels=c('JAN','FEB','MAR','APR','MAY','JUN','JUL','AUG','SEP','OCT','NOV','DEC','JAN'),at=seq(from=1,to=73,by=6))
> axis(3,labels=FALSE)
> axis(4,labels=FALSE,at=seq(from=1,to=73,by=6))
> ----
> 
> Thanks
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>