wrap_plots {patchwork}

Wrap plots into a patchwork

Description

While the use of + is a natural way to add plots together, it can be difficult to string together multiple plots programmatically if the number of plots is not known beforehand. wrap_plots makes it easy to take a list of plots and add them into one composition, along with layout specifications.

Usage

wrap_plots(
  ...,
  ncol = NULL,
  nrow = NULL,
  byrow = NULL,
  widths = NULL,
  heights = NULL,
  guides = NULL,
  tag_level = NULL,
  design = NULL
)

Arguments

...

multiple ggplots or a list containing ggplot objects

ncol, nrow

The dimensions of the grid to create - if both are NULL it will use the same logic as facet_wrap() to set the dimensions

byrow

Analogous to byrow in matrix(). If FALSE the plots will be filled in in column-major order

widths, heights

The relative widths and heights of each column and row in the grid. Will get repeated to match the dimensions of the grid. The special value of NA/⁠-1null⁠ will behave as ⁠1null⁠ unless a fixed aspect plot is inserted in which case it will allow the dimension to expand or contract to match the aspect ratio of the content

guides

A string specifying how guides should be treated in the layout. 'collect' will collect guides below to the given nesting level, removing duplicates. 'keep' will stop collection at this level and let guides be placed alongside their plot. auto will allow guides to be collected if a upper level tries, but place them alongside the plot if not. If you modify default guide "position" with theme(legend.position=...) while also collecting guides you must apply that change to the overall patchwork (see example).

tag_level

A string ('keep' or 'new') to indicate how auto-tagging should behave. See plot_annotation().

design

Specification of the location of areas in the layout. Can either be specified as a text string or by concatenating calls to area() together. See the examples for further information on use.

Details

If design is specified as a text string and the plots are named (e.g. wrap_plots(A = p1, ...)) and all plot names are single characters represented in the design layout string, the plots will be matched to their respective area by name. Otherwise the areas will be filled out sequentially in the same manner as using the + operator. See the examples for more.

Value

A patchwork object

Examples

library(ggplot2)

p1 <- ggplot(mtcars) + geom_point(aes(mpg, disp))
p2 <- ggplot(mtcars) + geom_boxplot(aes(gear, disp, group = gear))
p3 <- ggplot(mtcars) + geom_bar(aes(gear)) + facet_wrap(~cyl)
p4 <- ggplot(mtcars) + geom_bar(aes(carb))
p5 <- ggplot(mtcars) + geom_violin(aes(cyl, mpg, group = cyl))

# Either add the plots as single arguments
wrap_plots(p1, p2, p3, p4, p5)

# Or add them as a list...
plots <- list(p1, p2, p3, p4, p5)
wrap_plots(plots)

# Match plots to areas by name
design <- "#BB
           AA#"
wrap_plots(B = p1, A = p2, design = design)

# Compare to not using named plot arguments
wrap_plots(p1, p2, design = design)