Histogram with Logarithmic Scale and custom breaks

Question

I\'m trying to generate a histogram in R with a logarithmic scale for y. Currently I do:

hist(mydata$V3, breaks=c(0,1,2,3,4,5,25))

This giv

Answer 1

I've put together a function that behaves identically to hist in the default case, but accepts the log argument. It uses several tricks from other posters, but adds a few of its own. hist(x) and myhist(x) look identical.

The original problem would be solved with:

myhist(mydata$V3, breaks=c(0,1,2,3,4,5,25), log="xy")

The function:

myhist <- function(x, ..., breaks="Sturges",
                   main = paste("Histogram of", xname),
                   xlab = xname,
                   ylab = "Frequency") {
  xname = paste(deparse(substitute(x), 500), collapse="\n")
  h = hist(x, breaks=breaks, plot=FALSE)
  plot(h$breaks, c(NA,h$counts), type='S', main=main,
       xlab=xlab, ylab=ylab, axes=FALSE, ...)
  axis(1)
  axis(2)
  lines(h$breaks, c(h$counts,NA), type='s')
  lines(h$breaks, c(NA,h$counts), type='h')
  lines(h$breaks, c(h$counts,NA), type='h')
  lines(h$breaks, rep(0,length(h$breaks)), type='S')
  invisible(h)
}

Exercise for the reader: Unfortunately, not everything that works with hist works with myhist as it stands. That should be fixable with a bit more effort, though.