[R] Grouped boxplots using ggplot() from ggplot2.

Jeff Newmiller jdnewm|| @end|ng |rom dcn@d@v|@@c@@u@
Sat Jul 28 07:03:47 CEST 2018


When you understand the strong dependence on how the data controls ggplot, 
using it gets much easier. I still have to google details sometimes 
though. Note that it can be very difficult to make a weird plot (e.g. 
multiple parallel axes) in ggplot because it is very internally 
consistent... a blessing and a curse.

1) Colour is assigned in the scale according to order of levels of the 
factor. Note that while they are both discrete, the so-called "discrete" 
scales auto-colour, but "manual" scales require you to specify the exact 
colour sequence.

2) Assigning constants to properties is done outside the mapping (aes). 
Note that "colour" is for lines and shapes outlines, while "fill" is 
colour meant to fill in shapes. When the names of these two scales are the 
same and the values are the same, the legends will merge. If not, they 
will be shown separately.

3) Discrete scales are controlled by the levels in the data. To prevent 
ggplot from removing missing levels, use the drop=FALSE argument.

4) Breaks are a property of the scale.

My changes were:

Year <- factor( rep( 4:8, each = 50, times = 2 ), levels = 0:8 )
DemoDat <- data.frame(Year = Year, Score = c( X0 , X1 ), Type = Type )

ggplot( data = DemoDat
       , aes( x = Year, y = Score, color = Type )
       , fill = NULL
       ) +
     geom_boxplot( position = position_dodge(1) ) +
     theme_minimal() +
     scale_colour_manual( name = "National v. Local"
                        , values = c( "red", "black" ) ) +
     scale_x_discrete( drop = FALSE ) +
     scale_y_continuous( breaks = seq( 700, 2100, 100 ) )

Good luck with your graphics grammar!

On Sat, 28 Jul 2018, Rolf Turner wrote:

>
> I have the task of producing some boxplot graphics with the requirement that 
> these have the same general appearance as a set of such graphics
> as were produced last year.  I do not have access to the code that was
> used to produce the "last year" graphics.
>
> There are multiple boxplots per figure and these boxplots appear in groups 
> (with two boxplots in each group in the simplest instance; there are four or 
> more per group in other instances, but I figure that if I can work out how to 
> handle two, then ....).
>
> After a bit of Googling I found that ggplot() does basically what I want. 
> However my mindset seems to be substantially incompatible with that of 
> ggplot() and I cannot figure out how to make some adjustments which are 
> needed in order to make my plots look like last year's.
>
> In last year's graphics the boxes were unfilled and were distinguished
> (within groups) by their boundary colours, which were "red" and "black"
> in the simple two-per-group instance.  I achieved the "unfilled" effect by 
> setting alpha=0 inside the call to geom_boxplot().  (Is this the Right Thing 
> to Do?)  However I cannot get the boundary colours of the
> boxes to be "red" and "black".
>
> I have attached a sourceable script ("demo.txt") showing what I have tried so 
> far.  I don't really understand the code; I simply copied and adjusted code 
> that I saw on stackoverflow.  (Fairly mindlessly I'm afraid.)
>
> Problems:
>
> (1) The borders of the boxes are distinct, but they are sort-of-pink and 
> sort-of-blue, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make them red 
> and black.
>
> (2) Putting in "color=Type" seemed to have the effect of creating two 
> legends, one with the desired legend title but all in black, and one with 
> legend title equal to "Type" but using the colours that actually appear. How 
> can I get just one "appropriate" legend?
>
> (3) Last year's graphics have the x-axis starting at 0 (rather than at
> c. 3.5).  I tried using + xlim(0,8.5) but got told "Error: Discrete value 
> supplied to continuous scale".  How can I make the appropriate
> adjustment?
>
> (4) Last year's graphics have y-axis tick marks, labels and grid lines at 
> 700, 800, 900, ..., 2000, 2100.  How can I reproduce this?
>
> I actually had several additional questions, but thought I'd better scrounge 
> around a bit more before posting this, and thereby managed (mirabile dictu!) 
> to answer them myself.
>
> Can anyone help me out with questions (1) --- (4)?  Please keep it simple and 
> very explicit, for I am a bear of very little brain and long words bother me!
>
> Thanks.
>
> cheers,
>
> Rolf Turner
>
> -- 
> Technical Editor ANZJS
> Department of Statistics
> University of Auckland
> Phone: +64-9-373-7599 ext. 88276
>

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