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How to Make a Multi-line Step Chart in R

For the times your data represents immediate changes in value.

The step chart is a way to show immediate changes in value over time and can be good for discrete values. For example, postage prices change right away, but if you were to show it with a line chart, it would look like the price steadily rose.

In R, to show a single step line, you can use the plot() function and set the type to “s”. However, to draw multiple step lines, you take a few extra steps.

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About the Author

Nathan Yau is a statistician who works primarily with visualization. He earned his PhD in statistics from UCLA, is the author of two best-selling books — Data Points and Visualize This — and runs FlowingData. Introvert. Likes food. Likes beer.