Created
June 29, 2017 19:07
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| library(tidyverse) | |
| library(forcats) | |
| # The original plot | |
| ## This has an ugly legend title, maybe we should remove it and modify the labels | |
| ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = mpg, y = disp, col = as.factor(cyl))) + | |
| geom_point() | |
| # Approach 1: Modify the plot | |
| # Use ggplot to map each level of a factor (specified with 'breaks') to a new lablel | |
| ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = mpg, y = disp, col = as.factor(cyl))) + | |
| geom_point() + | |
| scale_color_discrete(name = "", | |
| breaks = c(4,6,8), labels = c('4 cylinders','6 cylinders','8 cylinders')) | |
| # Approach 2: Modify the data frame | |
| ## Option a: Use sprintf to create a new string based on the old one | |
| mtcars %>% | |
| mutate(cyl_str = sprintf('%d cylinders', cyl)) %>% | |
| ggplot(aes(x = mpg, y = disp, col = cyl_str)) + | |
| geom_point() + | |
| scale_color_discrete(name = "") | |
| ## Option b: Create a factor and explicitly specify the levels and labels | |
| ### Note: this will break if cyl is already a factor unless you force as.character first | |
| mtcars %>% | |
| mutate(cyl_factor = factor(cyl, | |
| levels = c(4,6,8), | |
| labels = c('4 cylinders','6 cylinders','8 cylinders'))) %>% | |
| ggplot(aes(x = mpg, y = disp, col = cyl_factor)) + | |
| geom_point() + | |
| scale_color_discrete(name = "") | |
| ## Option c: Use dplyr's recode_factor to change labels | |
| ### Note: old values on the left, new ones on the right | |
| mtcars %>% | |
| mutate(cyl_factor = as.factor(cyl), | |
| cyl_factor = recode_factor(cyl_factor, | |
| "4"="4 cylinders", "6"="6 cylinders", "8"="8 cylinders")) %>% | |
| ggplot(aes(x = mpg, y = disp, col = cyl_factor)) + | |
| geom_point() + | |
| scale_color_discrete(name = "") | |
| ## Option d: Use forcat's fct_recode to change labels | |
| ### Note: new values on the left, old ones on the right (opposite of above) | |
| mtcars %>% | |
| mutate(cyl_factor = as.factor(cyl), | |
| cyl_factor = fct_recode(cyl_factor, | |
| "4 cylinders"="4", "6 cylinders"="6", "8 cylinders"="8")) %>% | |
| ggplot(aes(x = mpg, y = disp, col = cyl_factor)) + | |
| geom_point() + | |
| scale_color_discrete(name = "") | |
| ## Option e: Use plyr's revalue | |
| ### Note: like previous option, but you pass a named vector instead of a sequence of named arguments | |
| mtcars %>% | |
| mutate(cyl_factor = as.factor(cyl), | |
| cyl_factor = plyr::revalue(cyl_factor, | |
| c("4"="4 cylinders", "6"="6 cylinders", "8"="8 cylinders"))) %>% | |
| ggplot(aes(x = mpg, y = disp, col = cyl_factor)) + | |
| geom_point() + | |
| scale_color_discrete(name = "") |
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