Programmatically plotting with ggplot2

1 Setup

library(tidyverse)  # data wrangling
library(easystats)  # comfort in stats
data(mtcars)

In essence, we want to build this kind of plot programmatically:

mtcars %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x=hp)) +
  geom_histogram()

2 Let’s go

2.1 Way 1

Let’s use unquoted variable names.

plot_descriptives0 <- function(data, var) {
  

  data %>% 
   ggplot(aes(x = {{var}})) +
   geom_histogram()
}

plot_descriptives0(mtcars, hp)

2.2 Way 2

Somewhat more elaborated, but same idea:

plot_descriptives1 <- function(data, var, group) {
  
  var_string <- deparse(substitute(var))
  
  data %>% 
    select({{var}}, {{group}}) %>%
    drop_na() %>% 
    group_by({{group}}) %>%
    mutate({{group}} := as.factor({{group}})) %>%  
    describe_distribution(iqr = FALSE, range = TRUE, quartiles = TRUE) %>% 
    select(Variable, Mean, SD, .group) %>% 
    mutate(group = str_remove(.group, "^.+=")) %>% 
    select(-.group) %>% 
    #pivot_longer(-c(Variable, group)) %>% 
    ggplot(aes(x = group)) +
    geom_errorbar(aes(ymin = Mean-(2*SD), ymax = Mean+(2*SD)), width = .1) +
    geom_point2(aes(y = Mean), alpha = .7, size = 3) +
    facet_wrap(~ Variable) +
    labs(caption = "Error bars show mean ± 2SD",
         title = paste0("Variable: ", var_string)) +
    coord_flip() +
    theme(legend.position = "bottom")
}
plot_descriptives1(mtcars, hp, cyl)

This line gives us the variable name as a string:

deparse(substitute(var))
#> [1] "var"

More specifically:

deparse(substitute(mtcars$hp))
#> [1] "mtcars$hp"

2.3 Way 2

This time, we have variables as strings

plot_descriptives2 <- function(data, var) {
  data %>% 
    ggplot(aes_string(x = var)) +
    geom_histogram() +
    labs(title = paste0("Variable: ", var))
}

However, aes_string is deprecated.

plot_descriptives2(mtcars, "hp")

2.4 Way 3

Here we use sym

?sym
#> Help on topic 'sym' was found in the following packages:
#> 
#>   Package               Library
#>   rlang                 /Users/sebastiansaueruser/Rlibs
#>   dplyr                 /Users/sebastiansaueruser/Rlibs
#>   ggplot2               /Users/sebastiansaueruser/Rlibs
#> 
#> 
#> Using the first match ...

sym() and syms() take strings as input and turn them into symbols.

See:

sym("hp")
#> hp

!! is used to evaluate a symbol, ie., gives back the “real” column, such as hp.

The !! operator unquotes its argument. It gets evaluated immediately in the surrounding context.

plot_descriptives3 <- function(data, var) {
  
  var_enquo <- sym(var)
  
  data %>% 
    ggplot(aes(x = !!var_enquo)) +
    geom_histogram()
}

plot_descriptives3(mtcars, "hp")

2.5 Way 4

We can swqp the “bang-bang” !! in favor of “curly-curly” :

plot_descriptives4 <- function(data, var) {
  
  var_enquo <- sym(var)
  
  data %>% 
    ggplot(aes(x = {{var_enquo}})) +
    geom_histogram()
}

plot_descriptives4(mtcars, "hp")

4 Reproducibility

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