Hi: order() simply returns the index vector that corresponds to the ordering, not the ordering per se. Besides, when you read in the data, Occupation is read in as a factor that will by default order the levels alphabetically. If you want a different ordering, you can redefine the factor; e.g.,
df$Occupation <- factor(df$Occupations, levels = c('Doctor', 'Engineer', 'Accountant')) It appears that you want to do something like a bar chart. The code below is one way to do this with base graphics, but this is readily done in lattice and ggplot2 as well. I refer to your toy data below as df and use the given ordering for occupation. > str(df) 'data.frame': 3 obs. of 3 variables: $ Occupation : Factor w/ 3 levels "Accountant","Doctor",..: 1 3 2 $ American.Workers: int 12 45 50 $ Foreign.Workers : int 2 54 37 # Create a matrix of frequencies, using occupation as the row names: > m <- as.matrix(df[, -1]) > rownames(m) <- df[, 1] > m American.Workers Foreign.Workers Accountant 12 2 Engineer 45 54 Doctor 50 37 # Create a bar chart (this one is side-by-side, the default (beside = FALSE) # will stack instead) > barplot(t(m), beside = TRUE, col = c('blue', 'red')) > box() # Add a legend > legnames <- c('American', 'Foreign') # Use the mouse to locate the legend on the graphics surface > legend(locator(1), legend = legnames, fill = c('blue', 'red')) HTH, Dennis On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 6:53 PM, cosinenonqua <sergeygo...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I have a data frame with 3 columns and I want to order the entire list by > one > column and then plot. I used order() and it does order the data set but > when > I plot it is as if the set is as it was originally. I also can't figure out > how to plot two sets of data on the same graph. I have, > > Occupation American.Workers Foreign.Workers > Accountant 12 2 > Engineer 45 54 > Doctor 50 37 > > I want to be able to order American.Workers and then > plot(Occupation,American.Workers) and plot(Occupation,Foreign.Workers) on > the same graph. > -- > View this message in context: > http://n4.nabble.com/Keeping-the-order-of-data-set-when-plotting-tp1574535p1574535.html > Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org 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. > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org 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.