grid.convert Convert Between Different grid Coordinate Systems

Description

These functions take a unit object and convert it to an equivalent unit object in a different coordinate system.

Usage

convertX(x, unitTo, valueOnly = FALSE)
convertY(x, unitTo, valueOnly = FALSE)
convertWidth(x, unitTo, valueOnly = FALSE)
convertHeight(x, unitTo, valueOnly = FALSE)
convertUnit(x, unitTo,
             axisFrom = "x", typeFrom = "location",
             axisTo = axisFrom, typeTo = typeFrom,
             valueOnly = FALSE)

Arguments

x	A unit object.
unitTo	The coordinate system to convert the unit to. See the unit function for valid coordinate systems.
axisFrom	Either "x" or "y" to indicate whether the unit object represents a value in the x- or y-direction.
typeFrom	Either "location" or "dimension" to indicate whether the unit object represents a location or a length.
axisTo	Same as axisFrom, but applies to the unit object that is to be created.
typeTo	Same as typeFrom, but applies to the unit object that is to be created.
valueOnly	A logical indicating. If TRUE then the function does not return a unit object, but rather only the converted numeric values.

Details

The convertUnit function allows for general-purpose conversions. The other four functions are just more convenient front-ends to it for the most common conversions.

The conversions occur within the current viewport.

It is not currently possible to convert to all valid coordinate systems (e.g., "strwidth" or "grobwidth"). I'm not sure if all of these are impossible, they just seem implausible at this stage.

In normal usage of grid, these functions should not be necessary. If you want to express a location or dimension in inches rather than user coordinates then you should simply do something like unit(1, "inches") rather than something like unit(0.134, "native").

In some cases, however, it is necessary for the user to perform calculations on a unit value and this function becomes necessary. In such cases, please take note of the warning below.

Value

A unit object in the specified coordinate system (unless valueOnly is TRUE in which case the returned value is a numeric).

Warning

The conversion is only valid for the current device size. If the device is resized then at least some conversions will become invalid. For example, suppose that I create a unit object as follows: oneinch <- convertUnit(unit(1, "inches"), "native"). Now if I resize the device, the unit object in oneinch no longer corresponds to a physical length of 1 inch.

Author(s)

Paul Murrell

See Also

unit

Examples

## A tautology
convertX(unit(1, "inches"), "inches")
## The physical units
convertX(unit(2.54, "cm"), "inches")
convertX(unit(25.4, "mm"), "inches")
convertX(unit(72.27, "points"), "inches")
convertX(unit(1/12*72.27, "picas"), "inches")
convertX(unit(72, "bigpts"), "inches")
convertX(unit(1157/1238*72.27, "dida"), "inches")
convertX(unit(1/12*1157/1238*72.27, "cicero"), "inches")
convertX(unit(65536*72.27, "scaledpts"), "inches")
convertX(unit(1/2.54, "inches"), "cm")
convertX(unit(1/25.4, "inches"), "mm")
convertX(unit(1/72.27, "inches"), "points")
convertX(unit(1/(1/12*72.27), "inches"), "picas")
convertX(unit(1/72, "inches"), "bigpts")
convertX(unit(1/(1157/1238*72.27), "inches"), "dida")
convertX(unit(1/(1/12*1157/1238*72.27), "inches"), "cicero")
convertX(unit(1/(65536*72.27), "inches"), "scaledpts")

pushViewport(viewport(width=unit(1, "inches"),
                       height=unit(2, "inches"),
                       xscale=c(0, 1),
                       yscale=c(1, 3)))
  ## Location versus dimension
  convertY(unit(2, "native"), "inches")
  convertHeight(unit(2, "native"), "inches")
  ## From "x" to "y" (the conversion is via "inches")
  convertUnit(unit(1, "native"), "native",
               axisFrom="x", axisTo="y")
  ## Convert several values at once
  convertX(unit(c(0.5, 2.54), c("npc", "cm")),
                c("inches", "native"))
popViewport()
## Convert a complex unit
convertX(unit(1, "strwidth", "Hello"), "native")