How to save one plot for each variable contained in a matrix as a R element and with the variable name as element name? (With a loop)

Question

I've tried this

fdist <- function(X) { for(i in 1:ncol(X)){ print(i) gg <- ggplot(X, aes(x=X[,i])) + stat_ecdf(geom = "step") gg <- gg + labs(x=paste(names(X[,i]))) assign(paste(names(X[,i]), i, sep = ''), gg + labs(x = names(X[,i]))) end} }

but at first I got all plots saved with the numeration as names, and now isn't even getting to save the plots as R elements.

Thanks for help.

Answer 1

First, use a data frame. ggplot2 works much better with data frames.

df = as.data.frame(X)

Better to create your plots in a named list than as many separate objects. The creation can be simple using lapply like this:

plot_list = lapply(names(df), function(x) {
  ggplot(df[x], aes_string(x = x)) +
    stat_ecdf(geom = "step") 
})

Looping/ lapply ing over the names means the default label will be correct. And use aes_string() instead of aes() when using a column name stored in a variable.

If you arent comfortable with lapply you can still use a for loop for the same result:

plot_list = list()
for (x in names(df)) {
  plot_list[[x]] = ggplot(df[x], aes_string(x = x)) +
    stat_ecdf(geom = "step") 
}