How to increase the space between the bars in a bar plot in ggplot2?

RGgplot2

R Problem Overview


How can I increase the space between the bars in a bar plot in ggplot2 ?

R Solutions


Solution 1 - R

You can always play with the width parameter, as shown below:

df <- data.frame(x=factor(LETTERS[1:4]), y=sample(1:100, 4))
library(ggplot2)
ggplot(data=df, aes(x=x, y=y, width=.5)) + 
  geom_bar(stat="identity", position="identity") +
  opts(title="width = .5") + labs(x="", y="") +
  theme_bw()

Compare with the following other settings for width:

alt text

So far, so good. Now, suppose we have two factors. In case you would like to play with evenly spaced juxtaposed bars (like when using space together with beside=TRUE in barplot()), it's not so easy using geom_bar(position="dodge"): you can change bar width, but not add space in between adjacent bars (and I didn't find a convenient solution on Google). I ended up with something like that:

df <- data.frame(g=gl(2, 1, labels=letters[1:2]), y=sample(1:100, 4))
x.seq <- c(1,2,4,5)
ggplot(data=transform(df, x=x.seq), aes(x=x, y=y, width=.85)) +
  geom_bar(stat="identity", aes(fill=g)) + labs(x="", y="") + 
  scale_x_discrete(breaks = NA) + 
  geom_text(aes(x=c(sum(x.seq[1:2])/2, sum(x.seq[3:4])/2), y=0, 
                label=c("X","Y")), vjust=1.2, size=8)

The vector used for the $x$-axis is "injected" in the data.frame, so that so you change the outer spacing if you want, while width allows to control for inner spacing. Labels for the $x$-axis might be enhanced by using scale_x_discrete().

alt text

Solution 2 - R

For space between factor bars use

ggplot(data = d, aes(x=X, y=Y, fill=F)) 
 + geom_bar(width = 0.8, position = position_dodge(width = 0.9))

The width in geom_bar controls the bar width in relation to the x-axis while the width in position_dodge control the width of the space given to both bars also in relation to the x-axis. Play around with the width to find one that you like.

Solution 3 - R

Thank you very much chl.! I had the same problem and you helped me solving it. Instead of using geom_text to add the X-labels I used scale_x_continuous (see below)

geom_text(aes(x=c(sum(x.seq[1:2])/2, sum(x.seq[3:4])/2), y=0, 
            label=c("X","Y")), vjust=1.2, size=8)

replaced by

scale_x_continuous(breaks=c(mean(x.seq[1:2]), mean(x.seq[3:4])), labels=c("X", "Y")) 

Solution 4 - R

For space between POSIXlt bars you need adjust the width from the number of seconds in a day

# POSIXlt example: full & half width
d <- data.frame(dates = strptime(paste(2016, "01", 1:10, sep = "-"), "%Y-%m-%d"),
            values = 1:10)

ggplot(d, aes(dates, values)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", width = 60*60*24) 

ggplot(d, aes(dates, values)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "identity", width = 60*60*24*0.5) 

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Content TypeOriginal AuthorOriginal Content on Stackoverflow
QuestionJanaView Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - RchlView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - ROliEView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - RRalphView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - RKEROView Answer on Stackoverflow