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rchoroplethr

R package choroplethr says use zip_choroplethr instead of zip_map, but function not available

I did install.packages("choroplethr"), followed by library(choroplethr). I want to find out how to do a zip code choropleth, so I start typing in RStudio, "?choroplethr::zip..." The only function that RStudio finds is zip_map. I go to its help file and see the following documentation:

This function is deprecated as of choroplethr version 3.0.0. Please use ?zip_choropleth instead. The last version of choroplethr in which this function worked was version 2.1.1, which can be downloaded from CRAN here: http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/choroplethr/index.html

Okay, I guess I'll find out about this zip_choroplethr function then.

?choroplethr::zip_choroplethr
# No documentation for ‘zip_choroplethr’ in specified packages and libraries:
# you could try ‘??zip_choroplethr’

Wut.

Solution

  • Thank you for using choroplethr.

    zip_map is, indeed, deprecated. It used scatterplots, which wasn't the best way to visualize zip codes, especially because they are so small.

    Within choroplethr, Zip code choropleths are managed by a new, separate package: choroplethrZip. You can see the installation instructions and documentation here.

    CRAN rejected choroplethrZip due to the size of the map, which is why it is in separate package and on github.