Markov Chains and decimal points in r?

Question

I have plotted a markov chain from a matrix in r. However, I have numerous probabilities under 0.01, and thus my probability plot looks something like this:

I've been searching for hours and I can't seem to find something that allows me to display all four decimal places. Is there any way to format this or should I leave it as is?

My code is as follows:

library(markovchain)

newtransition.matrix <- matrix( data = c(
  .9366, .0066, .0007, .0003 ,.0003, 0, .0015, 0, 
  .0583, .9172, .0225, .0026, .0006, .001, 0, 0,
  .004, .0694, .9176, .0483, .0044, .0032, .0029, 0,
  .0009, .0049, .0518, .8924, .0666, .0046, .0088, 0,
  .0002, .0006, .0049, .0444, .8323, .0572, .0191, 0,
  0, .0009, .002, .0081, .0746, .8362, .1028, 0,
  0, .0002, .0001, .0016, .0105, .0384, .6123, 0,
  0, .0002, .0004, .0023, .0107, .0594, .2526, 1),
  nrow = 8, ncol = 8,
  dimnames = list( c( "AAA", "AA", "A", "BBB", "BB", "B", "CCC", "Default" ), c( "AAA", "AA", "A", "BBB", "BB", "B", "CCC", "Default") ) )
 print( newtransition.matrix )

newtransition.matrix <- new( "markovchain", transitionMatrix = newtransition.matrix )
layout <- matrix(c(-3, 1, 2, 2, 2, -2, 4, 1, 0, 6, 0, -6, -3, -4, 3, -4), ncol = 2, byrow = TRUE)

plot(newtransition.matrix, vertex.size = 10, layout = layout, edge.arrow.size=0.25)

Many thanks!

Answer 1

Here's a simple solution that uses the igraph package. If you look at the documentation for markovchain , the plotting function for markovchain simply calls the plot function from igraph , so you will find that many (if not all) of the plotting arguments are cross-compatible between both kinds of objects.

Here, we simply create an igraph object from your transition matrix, and plot that instead. You will probably find this more convenient than plotting the markovchain objects directly.

library(markovchain)
library(igraph)
newtransition.matrix <- new( "markovchain", transitionMatrix = newtransition.matrix )
layout <- matrix(c(-3, 1, 2, 2, 2, -2, 4, 1, 0, 6, 0, -6, -3, -4, 3, -4),
ncol = 2,
byrow = TRUE)

# create an igraph object from your transition matrix
graph <- as(newtransition.matrix, "igraph") 

plot(graph, vertex.size = 15,
            edge.label = E(graph)$prob, # We add the proper edge labels here
            layout = layout,
            edge.arrow.size=0.25)

Answer 2

You need to edit the S4 methods. 2 digits limit is hard coded in the plotting function. I cannot manage to edit the body of the function with code alone (if anyone else can figure it out, leave a comment). The code below requires a bit of user input.

# Digging to find the plotting function for markovchain
showMethods(plot)

# Find the source code
f <- getMethod("plot", signature = c(x="markovchain", y="missing"))

# Ahh it uses plot.igraph, and the labels are being specified with edge.label = edgeLabel
# But edgeLabel is being rounded to 2 digits
# Extract and edit the body of f, 
# Change round(E(netMc)$weight/100, 2) to round(E(netMc)$weight/100, 4) or something larger
g <- edit(body(f@.Data))

# Store the edited body again
body(f@.Data) <- g

# Call new plotting function to plot with more digits
f(newtransition.matrix, vertex.size = 10, layout = layout, edge.arrow.size=0.25)