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rsuperscriptr-forestplot

Forestplot in R superscript in tabletext matrix


I am creating a forestplot in R. Since I cannot display my own data I am using example code and data that I found here https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/forestplot/vignettes/forestplot.html

cochrane_from_rmeta <- 
structure(list(
mean  = c(NA, NA, 0.578, 0.165, 0.246, 0.700, 0.348, 0.139, 1.017, NA, 0.531), 
lower = c(NA, NA, 0.372, 0.018, 0.072, 0.333, 0.083, 0.016, 0.365, NA, 0.386),
upper = c(NA, NA, 0.898, 1.517, 0.833, 1.474, 1.455, 1.209, 2.831, NA, 0.731)),
.Names = c("mean", "lower", "upper"), 
row.names = c(NA, -11L), 
class = "data.frame")


tabletext<-cbind(
c("", "Study", "Auckland", "Block", 
"Doran", "Gamsu", "Morrison", "Papageorgiou", 
"Tauesch", NA, "Summary"),
c("Deaths", "(steroid)", "36", "1", 
"4", "14", "3", "1", 
"8", NA, NA),
c("Deaths", "(placebo)", "60", "5", 
"11", "20", "7", "7", 
"10", NA, NA),
c("", "OR", "0.58", "0.16", 
"0.25", "0.70", "0.35", "0.14", 
"1.02", NA, "0.53"),
c("",NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,"Heterogeniety I^2 = 20%"))[enter image description here][1]


library(forestplot)
 forestplot(tabletext, 
       cochrane_from_rmeta,new_page = TRUE,
       is.summary=c(TRUE,TRUE,rep(FALSE,8),TRUE),
       clip=c(0.1,2.5), 
       xlog=TRUE, 
       col=fpColors(box="royalblue",line="darkblue", summary="royalblue"))

I would like to superscript the very last label for Heterogeniety. I tried expression(Heterogeniety~I^2), but I get the following error message:

Error in cbind(c("Outcome", "Death or BPD", NA, NA, NA, "Interaction p value = .xx", : cannot create a matrix from type 'expression'

How do I include a superscript in my forestplot?


Solution

  • R does not allow you to create a matrix of expression. Also mentioned in the documentation for forestplot,

    You can also provide a matrix although this cannot have expressions by design

    Luckily, the documentation for forestplot also mentioned that it can take in a list for labeltext.

    The list should be wrapped in m x n number to resemble a matrix: list(list("rowname 1 col 1", "rowname 2 col 1"), list("r1c2", expression(beta))

    Hence, you might want to convert your tabletext into a nested list as follows:

    tabletext <- list(
        list("", "Study", "Auckland", "Block", 
            "Doran", "Gamsu", "Morrison", "Papageorgiou", 
            "Tauesch", NA, "Summary"),
        list("Deaths", "(steroid)", "36", "1", 
            "4", "14", "3", "1", 
            "8", NA, NA),
        list("Deaths", "(placebo)", "60", "5", 
            "11", "20", "7", "7", 
            "10", NA, NA),
        list("", "OR", "0.58", "0.16", 
            "0.25", "0.70", "0.35", "0.14", 
            "1.02", NA, "0.53"),
        list("",NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA,NA, expression(Heterogeniety~I^2==20~'%')))
    
    
    forestplot(tabletext, 
        cochrane_from_rmeta,new_page = TRUE,
        is.summary=c(TRUE,TRUE,rep(FALSE,8),TRUE),
        clip=c(0.1,2.5), 
        xlog=TRUE, 
        col=fpColors(box="royalblue",line="darkblue", summary="royalblue"))
    

    HTH.