ggplot2 Variable Name with Spaces and tidyeval Syntax [duplicate]

Question

I am trying to create a function which allows column names to be passed in by the user and I find that the resulting plot is simply one dot in the middle of screen. What needs to change for it to work as intended? My minimalist example is:

library(ggplot2)
weather <- data.frame(Month = month.name[1:5], `Low Temperature` = 20:16,
                      `High Temperature` = seq(30, 22, -2), check.names = FALSE)

xVariable <- "Month"
yVariable <- "High Temperature"
yVariable <- enquo(yVariable)
ggplot(weather, aes(x = xVariable, y = !!yVariable)) + geom_point()

Lionel Henry · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-22 10:55:09Z

4

Note that enquo() is only for function arguments.

If you have column names as strings, use the .data pronoun:

fn <- function(data, x, y) {
  data %>%
    ggplot(aes(x = .data[[x]], y = .data[[y]])) +
    geom_point() 
}

x <- "disp"
y <- "drat"

fn(mtcars, x, y)

answered Oct 22, 2021 at 10:55

Lionel Henry

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Kra.P · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-22 07:06:44Z

3

Because it's quoted text, instead of enquo, use rlang::sym

xVariable <- "Month"
yVariable <- "High Temperature"
fun <- function(dat, xvar, yvar) {
  xvar <- rlang::sym(xvar)
  yvar <- rlang::sym(yvar)
  p1 <-dat %>%
    ggplot(aes(x = !!xvar, y = !!yvar)) +
    geom_point()
  return(p1)
  
}


fun(weather, xVariable, yVariable)

answered Oct 22, 2021 at 7:06

Kra.P

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1 Comment

Lionel Henry Over a year ago

I think using .data would be better. It's less technical (no !! injection) and less brittle (only scoped in the data, no risk of collisions with env-variables if the column unexpectedly doesn't exist). I have added a variant of that answer that uses .data.

norie · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-22 07:15:45Z

2

You could use aes_string instead of aes.

library(ggplot2)
weather <- data.frame(Month = month.name[1:5], `Low Temperature` = 20:16,
                      `High Temperature` = seq(30, 22, -2), check.names = FALSE)

xVariable <- "Month"
yVariable <- "`High Temperature`"

ggplot(weather, aes_string(x = xVariable, y = yVariable)) + geom_point()

answered Oct 22, 2021 at 7:15

norie

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1 Comment

Dario Over a year ago

I originally had aes_string but it is deprecated since ggplot2 version 3.0.0 according to its NEWS file.

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