Question

I am trying to come up with a solution that doesn’t involve using other packages such as ggplot. While plotting multiple lines is pretty straightforward, I haven’t figured out a way to apply different values of an argument – e.g., different colors – to different lines. The code below (with the resulting plot) was my attempt, which obviously didn’t do what I would like it to do. I also don’t want to use a loop because I am trying to make my script as simple as possible.

df = cbind(sort(rnorm(10)), sort(rnorm(10,-2)), sort(rlnorm(10)))
plot(0, xlim = c(1,10), ylim=range(df), type="n")
apply(df, 2, lines, type="b", col = c("red", "blue", "black"))

What I really want is a plot like below:

plot(0, xlim = c(1,10), ylim=range(df), type="n")
color = c("red","blue","black")
for(i in 1:3){
    lines(1:10, df[,i], type = "b", col=color[i])
}

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Try matplot():

df <- cbind(sort(rnorm(10)), sort(rnorm(10,-2)), sort(rlnorm(10)))
matplot(df, type="b", lty=1, pch=1, col=c("blue", "red", "black"))