R: Polygons

geom_polygon {ggplot2}

R Documentation

Polygons

Description

Polygons are very similar to paths (as drawn by geom_path()) except that the start and end points are connected and the inside is coloured by fill. The group aesthetic determines which cases are connected together into a polygon. From R 3.6 and onwards it is possible to draw polygons with holes by providing a subgroup aesthetic that differentiates the outer ring points from those describing holes in the polygon.

Usage

geom_polygon(
  mapping = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  stat = "identity",
  position = "identity",
  rule = "evenodd",
  ...,
  na.rm = FALSE,
  show.legend = NA,
  inherit.aes = TRUE
)

Arguments

`mapping`	Set of aesthetic mappings created by `aes()`. If specified and `inherit.aes = TRUE` (the default), it is combined with the default mapping at the top level of the plot. You must supply `mapping` if there is no plot mapping.
`data`	The data to be displayed in this layer. There are three options: If `NULL`, the default, the data is inherited from the plot data as specified in the call to `ggplot()`. A `data.frame`, or other object, will override the plot data. All objects will be fortified to produce a data frame. See `fortify()` for which variables will be created. A `function` will be called with a single argument, the plot data. The return value must be a `data.frame`, and will be used as the layer data. A `function` can be created from a `formula` (e.g. `~ head(.x, 10)`).
`stat`	The statistical transformation to use on the data for this layer. When using a `⁠geom_*()⁠` function to construct a layer, the `stat` argument can be used the override the default coupling between geoms and stats. The `stat` argument accepts the following: A `Stat` ggproto subclass, for example `StatCount`. A string naming the stat. To give the stat as a string, strip the function name of the `stat_` prefix. For example, to use `stat_count()`, give the stat as `"count"`. For more information and other ways to specify the stat, see the layer stat documentation.
`position`	A position adjustment to use on the data for this layer. This can be used in various ways, including to prevent overplotting and improving the display. The `position` argument accepts the following: The result of calling a position function, such as `position_jitter()`. This method allows for passing extra arguments to the position. A string naming the position adjustment. To give the position as a string, strip the function name of the `position_` prefix. For example, to use `position_jitter()`, give the position as `"jitter"`. For more information and other ways to specify the position, see the layer position documentation.
`rule`	Either `"evenodd"` or `"winding"`. If polygons with holes are being drawn (using the `subgroup` aesthetic) this argument defines how the hole coordinates are interpreted. See the examples in `grid::pathGrob()` for an explanation.
`...`	Other arguments passed on to `layer()`'s `params` argument. These arguments broadly fall into one of 4 categories below. Notably, further arguments to the `position` argument, or aesthetics that are required can not be passed through `...`. Unknown arguments that are not part of the 4 categories below are ignored. Static aesthetics that are not mapped to a scale, but are at a fixed value and apply to the layer as a whole. For example, `colour = "red"` or `linewidth = 3`. The geom's documentation has an Aesthetics section that lists the available options. The 'required' aesthetics cannot be passed on to the `params`. Please note that while passing unmapped aesthetics as vectors is technically possible, the order and required length is not guaranteed to be parallel to the input data. When constructing a layer using a `⁠stat_()⁠` function, the `...` argument can be used to pass on parameters to the `geom` part of the layer. An example of this is `stat_density(geom = "area", outline.type = "both")`. The geom's documentation lists which parameters it can accept. Inversely, when constructing a layer using a `⁠geom_()⁠` function, the `...` argument can be used to pass on parameters to the `stat` part of the layer. An example of this is `geom_area(stat = "density", adjust = 0.5)`. The stat's documentation lists which parameters it can accept. The `key_glyph` argument of `layer()` may also be passed on through `...`. This can be one of the functions described as key glyphs, to change the display of the layer in the legend.
`na.rm`	If `FALSE`, the default, missing values are removed with a warning. If `TRUE`, missing values are silently removed.
`show.legend`	logical. Should this layer be included in the legends? `NA`, the default, includes if any aesthetics are mapped. `FALSE` never includes, and `TRUE` always includes. It can also be a named logical vector to finely select the aesthetics to display.
`inherit.aes`	If `FALSE`, overrides the default aesthetics, rather than combining with them. This is most useful for helper functions that define both data and aesthetics and shouldn't inherit behaviour from the default plot specification, e.g. `borders()`.

Aesthetics

geom_polygon() understands the following aesthetics (required aesthetics are in bold):

x
y
alpha
colour
fill
group
linetype
linewidth
subgroup

Learn more about setting these aesthetics in vignette("ggplot2-specs").

Examples

# When using geom_polygon, you will typically need two data frames:
# one contains the coordinates of each polygon (positions),  and the
# other the values associated with each polygon (values).  An id
# variable links the two together

ids <- factor(c("1.1", "2.1", "1.2", "2.2", "1.3", "2.3"))

values <- data.frame(
  id = ids,
  value = c(3, 3.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.15, 3.5)
)

positions <- data.frame(
  id = rep(ids, each = 4),
  x = c(2, 1, 1.1, 2.2, 1, 0, 0.3, 1.1, 2.2, 1.1, 1.2, 2.5, 1.1, 0.3,
  0.5, 1.2, 2.5, 1.2, 1.3, 2.7, 1.2, 0.5, 0.6, 1.3),
  y = c(-0.5, 0, 1, 0.5, 0, 0.5, 1.5, 1, 0.5, 1, 2.1, 1.7, 1, 1.5,
  2.2, 2.1, 1.7, 2.1, 3.2, 2.8, 2.1, 2.2, 3.3, 3.2)
)

# Currently we need to manually merge the two together
datapoly <- merge(values, positions, by = c("id"))

p <- ggplot(datapoly, aes(x = x, y = y)) +
  geom_polygon(aes(fill = value, group = id))
p

# Which seems like a lot of work, but then it's easy to add on
# other features in this coordinate system, e.g.:

set.seed(1)
stream <- data.frame(
  x = cumsum(runif(50, max = 0.1)),
  y = cumsum(runif(50,max = 0.1))
)

p + geom_line(data = stream, colour = "grey30", linewidth = 5)

# And if the positions are in longitude and latitude, you can use
# coord_map to produce different map projections.

if (packageVersion("grid") >= "3.6") {
  # As of R version 3.6 geom_polygon() supports polygons with holes
  # Use the subgroup aesthetic to differentiate holes from the main polygon

  holes <- do.call(rbind, lapply(split(datapoly, datapoly$id), function(df) {
    df$x <- df$x + 0.5 * (mean(df$x) - df$x)
    df$y <- df$y + 0.5 * (mean(df$y) - df$y)
    df
  }))
  datapoly$subid <- 1L
  holes$subid <- 2L
  datapoly <- rbind(datapoly, holes)

  p <- ggplot(datapoly, aes(x = x, y = y)) +
    geom_polygon(aes(fill = value, group = id, subgroup = subid))
  p
}