ggplot2

Overview

ggplot2 is a system for declaratively creating graphics, based on The
Grammar of
Graphics. You
provide the data, tell ggplot2 how to map variables to aesthetics, what
graphical primitives to use, and it takes care of the details.

Installation

# The easiest way to get ggplot2 is to install the whole tidyverse:
install.packages("tidyverse")

# Alternatively, install just ggplot2:
install.packages("ggplot2")

# Or the development version from GitHub:
# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("tidyverse/ggplot2")

Cheatsheet

Usage

It’s hard to succinctly describe how ggplot2 works because it embodies a
deep philosophy of visualisation. However, in most cases you start with
ggplot(), supply a dataset and aesthetic mapping (with aes()). You
then add on layers (like geom_point() or geom_histogram()), scales
(like scale_colour_brewer()), faceting specifications (like
facet_wrap()) and coordinate systems (like coord_flip()).

library(ggplot2)

ggplot(mpg, aes(displ, hwy, colour = class)) +
  geom_point()

Lifecycle

ggplot2 is now over 10 years old and is used by hundreds of thousands of
people to make millions of plots. That means, by-and-large, ggplot2
itself changes relatively little. When we do make changes, they will be
generally to add new functions or arguments rather than changing the
behaviour of existing functions, and if we do make changes to existing
behaviour we will do them for compelling reasons.

If you are looking for innovation, look to ggplot2’s rich ecosystem of
extensions. See a community maintained list at
https://exts.ggplot2.tidyverse.org/gallery/.

Learning ggplot2

If you are new to ggplot2 you are better off starting with a systematic
introduction, rather than trying to learn from reading individual
documentation pages. Currently, there are several good places to start:

1. The Data Visualization and
   Communication chapters in R
   for Data Science. R for Data Science is
   designed to give you a comprehensive introduction to the
   tidyverse, and these two chapters will
   get you up to speed with the essentials of ggplot2 as quickly as
   possible.

2. If you’d like to take an online course, try Data Visualization in R
   With
   ggplot2
   by Kara Woo.

3. If you’d like to follow a webinar, try Plotting Anything with
   ggplot2 by Thomas Lin Pedersen.

4. If you want to dive into making common graphics as quickly as
   possible, I recommend The R Graphics
   Cookbook by Winston Chang. It provides a
   set of recipes to solve common graphics problems.

5. If you’ve mastered the basics and want to learn more, read ggplot2:
   Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis. It
   describes the theoretical underpinnings of ggplot2 and shows you how
   all the pieces fit together. This book helps you understand the
   theory that underpins ggplot2, and will help you create new types of
   graphics specifically tailored to your needs.

6. For articles about announcements and deep-dives you can visit the
   tidyverse blog.

Getting help

There are two main places to get help with ggplot2:

1. The RStudio community is a friendly place
   to ask any questions about ggplot2.

2. Stack
   Overflow
   is a great source of answers to common ggplot2 questions. It is also
   a great place to get help, once you have created a reproducible
   example that illustrates your problem.