\documentclass[a4paper]{article}

%\VignetteIndexEntry{Venn Diagrams with gplots}

\title{Venn Diagrams with \texttt{gplots}}
\author{Steffen M{\"{o}}ller}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

Venn diagrams\footnote{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venn\_diagram} 
allow for a quick overview on the number of elements that multiple
sets share. And when those elements are representing traits of
real objects, like observations in biomedical sciences/marketing/...,
then this may direct researchers to further investigations/decisions.

The {\tt gplots} package provides Venn diagrams for up to five sets.
The R code to produce the diagrams is not complicated. The plot
function behaves alwas the same, depending only on the number of
overlapping circles to draw. Its input is a table that is produced
by another function. The function {\tt venn()} calls one after the
other and is the only one to be seen by the user. The values shown
are returned invisibly.

The {\tt venn()} function accepts either a list of sets as an argument,
or it takes a binary matrix, one column per set, indicating for every
element, one per row, the membership with every set.

The common form with overlapping circles only works with up to three
sets, as seen here:
\begin{center}
<<fig=TRUE,echo=TRUE>>=
library(gplots)
venn( list(A=1:5,B=4:6,C=c(4,8:10)) )
@
\end{center}

The names of columns or the list elements are the set names.
To squeeze extra circles in, those circles need to become ellipses.
This works for four sets
\begin{center}
<<fig=TRUE,echo=TRUE>>=
v.table<-venn( list(A=1:5,B=4:6,C=c(4,8:10),D=c(4:12)) )
print(v.table)
@
\end{center}

and maybe even more impressively also for five.
\begin{center}
<<fig=TRUE,echo=FALSE>>=
venn( list(A=1:5,B=4:6,C=c(4,8:10),D=c(4:12),E=c(2,4,6:9)) )
@
\end{center}

The man page of {\it venn()} lists options to change the appearance of
the plots, e.g., the names of the sets may be omitted and sizes changed.
However, there is ample of opportunity to extend the functionality of
this package.  To mind come

\begin{itemize}
\item more dimensions (next)
\item colors
\item variation of size of circles with the number of members the set has
\item density plot rather than numbers, identification of individual entries
\end{itemize}

The prime personal interest is more in the increase of dimensions. Please
send patches for features you are most interested in.

\end{document}