This help topic is for R version 2.9.0. For the current version of R, try https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-patched/library/graphics/html/arrows.html
arrows {graphics}R Documentation

Add Arrows to a Plot

Description

Draw arrows between pairs of points.

Usage

arrows(x0, y0, x1, y1, length = 0.25, angle = 30, code = 2,
       col = par("fg"), lty = par("lty"), lwd = par("lwd"),
       ...)

Arguments

x0, y0

coordinates of points from which to draw.

x1, y1

coordinates of points to which to draw.

length

length of the edges of the arrow head (in inches).

angle

angle from the shaft of the arrow to the edge of the arrow head.

code

integer code, determining kind of arrows to be drawn.

col, lty, lwd

graphical parameters, possible vectors. NA values in col cause the arrow to be omitted.

...

graphical parameters such as xpd and the line characteristics lend, ljoin and lmitre: see par.

Details

For each i, an arrow is drawn between the point (x0[i], y0[i]) and the point (x1[i],y1[i]). The coordinate vectors will be recycled to the length of the longest.

If code=1 an arrowhead is drawn at (x0[i],y0[i]) and if code=2 an arrowhead is drawn at (x1[i],y1[i]). If code=3 a head is drawn at both ends of the arrow. Unless length = 0, when no head is drawn.

The graphical parameters col, lty and lwd can be vectors of length greater than one and will be recycled if necessary.

The direction of a zero-length arrow is indeterminate, and hence so is the direction of the arrowheads. To allow for rounding error, arrowheads are omitted (with a warning) on any arrow of length less than 1/1000 inch.

Note

The first four arguments in the comparable S function are named x1,y1,x2,y2.

References

Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole.

See Also

segments to draw segments.

Examples

x <- stats::runif(12); y <- stats::rnorm(12)
i <- order(x,y); x <- x[i]; y <- y[i]
plot(x,y, main="arrows(.) and segments(.)")
## draw arrows from point to point :
s <- seq(length(x)-1)# one shorter than data
arrows(x[s], y[s], x[s+1], y[s+1], col= 1:3)
s <- s[-length(s)]
segments(x[s], y[s], x[s+2], y[s+2], col= 'pink')

[Package graphics version 2.9.0 ]