using text on the x axis ticks rather than numbers

Hello,
  is there a way in which I can use text labels rather than numbers on
the x axis ticks? I basically have a vector of (say) 8 points and I want
to plot these sequentially. Thus the x axis would have ticks at 1 .. 8.
Rather than having the labels 1 .. 8 I would like to have some arbitrary
text labels.

Ideally I would like the labels to be rotated (say at 45 degrees) so
that they don't overlap with each other.

Is this possible?

Thanks,

Here is an example. For the axis labels, you need to use text() and not
mtext() as the latter does not allow for text rotation:

# Set margins to make room for x axis labels
par(mar = c(7, 4, 4, 2) + 0.1)

# Create plot with no x axis and no x axis label
plot(1:8, xaxt = "n",  xlab = "")

# Set up x axis with tick marks alone
axis(1, labels = FALSE)

# Create arbitrary text
labels <- paste("arbitrary text", 1:8, sep = " ")

# plot x axis labels using:
# par("usr")[3] - 0.25 as the vertical placement
# srt = 45 as text rotation angle
# adj = 1 to place right end of text at tick mark
# xpd = TRUE to allow for text outside the plot region
text(1:8, par("usr")[1] - 0.25, srt = 45, adj = 1,
     labels = labels, xpd = TRUE)

# plot x axis label at line 6 (of 7)
mtext(1, text = "X Axis Label", line = 6)


You can adjust the value of the '0.25' offset as required to move the x
axis labels up or down relative to the x axis.

HTH,

Marc Schwartz