This R Markdown document is a quick example of how to create your basic Gantt Chart using R. Run lines that are commented out by deleting the # (hashtag) at the start of the line.

Install and load the plotrix package in R

If you haven’t installed the package, this line will download and install it for you.

install.packages("plotrix")

Load the package for use:

library(plotrix)

Input the data labels and dates for your Gantt Chart

You can add more objectives to the chart. Make sure to have the same length of dates (start and end) and labels as below.

Ymd.format<-"%Y/%m/%d"
gantt.info<-list(labels=c("Contract Preparation","Rapid Literature Review","CITI Training","IRB Addendum & Inclusion","Data Download","Data Analysis","Data Products"),
                   starts=as.POSIXct(strptime(c("2014/06/01","2014/06/04","2014/06/07","2014/06/19","2014/06/29","2014/07/01","2014/07/23"),
                             format=Ymd.format)),
                     ends=as.POSIXct(strptime(c("2014/06/16","2014/06/19","2014/06/17","2014/06/29","2014/07/02","2014/07/22","2014/08/05"),
                             format=Ymd.format)),
                     priorities=c(1,4,3,2,3,2,1))

Assign values for the set up of your Gantt Chart

months <- seq(as.Date("2014/06/01", "%Y/%m/%d"), by="month", length.out=8)
monthslab <- format(months, format="%b")

vgridpos<-as.POSIXct(months,format=Ymd.format)
vgridlab<-monthslab

colfunc <- colorRampPalette(c("red", "darkgoldenrod1"))

timeframe <- as.POSIXct(c("2014/06/01","2014/09/01"),format=Ymd.format)

Plot and save your Gantt chart into PDF form

Last step is to plot all your values and save the file as a pdf

gantt.chart(gantt.info, taskcolors=colfunc(4),xlim=timeframe, main="Gantt Chart for Fieldwork 2014",
            priority.legend=TRUE,vgridpos=vgridpos,vgridlab=vgridlab,hgrid=TRUE)

Finally, you can save your graph by running these lines.

dev.copy(pdf, width = 8, height = 6, paper = "special")
dev.off()