[Tikzdevice-bugs] ggplot-tikz examples

[Charlie Sharpsteen]

On Thursday, July 28, 2011 6:21:31 PM UTC-7, Felipe Carrillo wrote:
>
> I was under the impression that I could create a report with graphics, text 
> and tables
> directly from the R console using the tikz() function.
>
> I guess what I can't understand yet is what \usepackage{tikz}
> does by including it in the preamble. 
> So the tikz() function used from the R console is mainly to make
> the graphics and no text or tables?
>
> Sorry for the many questions..I am almost getting it:)
>
The tikz() function invokes an R graphics device and R graphics devices are 
absolutely focused on drawing things---points, lines, circles, etc. The idea 
is to display the same content that the png(), pdf(), or windows() devices 
display but in a much more LaTeX-friendly format.  If you wanted to overlay 
a table on top of your scatterplot, you will need to find an R package that 
has a function for doing so.

However, I suspect that you probably don't want to wrap your paragraphs and 
tabulated data up into a "graphic". The usual way of presenting these items 
in a report is to have the graphics in figure environments, the tables in 
a separate table environments and the paragraphs of text flowing around 
these elements. For example:


\begin{document}

Some paragraphs of text describing the experiment.

\begin{figure}
<<figure_chunk>>=
  # A plot rendered using tikz()
@
\label{}
\caption{}
\end{figure}

More text...

\begin{table}
<<data_display_chunk>>=
   # Tabulated data, perhaps produced using something like the xtable 
package
@
\label{}
\caption{}
\end{table}

On with the report...

\end{document}


Keeping your figures and tables in separate environments makes it easier 
to cross-reference and the LaTeX table environment probably produces better 
looking tables than anything an R package could assemble out of points lines 
and circles on a graphics canvas.


-Charlie