Adding ggplot() objects in a for loop

Question

I would like to create 4 plots which show 4 different conditions in a simulation. The 4 conditions in the simulation are iterated using a for loop. What I would like to do is:

for (cond in 1:4){
1.RUN SIMULATION
2.PLOT RESULTS
}

In the end I would like to have 4 plots arranged on a grid. With plot() I can just use par(mfrow) and the plots would be added automatically. Is there a way to do the same with ggplot?

I am aware that I could use grid.arrange() but that would require storing the plots in separate objects, plot1...plot5. But its not possible to do:

for (cond in 1:4){
1. run simulation
2. plot[cond]<-ggplot(...)
}

I cannot give separate names to the plots, like plot1, plot2, plot3 within the loop.

Could do library(gridExtra) ; grid.arrange(p1, p2, p3, p4, ncol=1) — David Arenburg
– David Arenburg, Commented Jun 30, 2014 at 10:36
but in the loop the data from which the plot is constructed is lost on every iteration. so the plots should be ready at the end of the loop. — user3742038
– user3742038, Commented Jun 30, 2014 at 10:38

Jot eN · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-30 10:37:20Z

4

You could use gridExtra package:

library(gridExtra)
library(ggplot2)
p <- list()
for(i in 1:4){
  p[[i]] <- ggplot(YOUR DATA, ETC.)
}
do.call(grid.arrange,p)

answered Jun 30, 2014 at 10:37

Jot eN

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user3742038 Over a year ago

for grid arrange I would need to store the plots into separate objects first. how would I do that in a loop?

Paul Hiemstra · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-30 13:12:52Z

I would use facetting in this case. In my experience, explicitly arranging sub-plots is rarely needed in ggplot2. A mockup example will probably illustrate my point better:

run_model = function(id) {
    data.frame(x_values = 1:1000, 
               y_values = runif(1000), 
               id = sprintf('Plot %d', id))
}
df = do.call('rbind', lapply(1:4, run_model))
head(df)
  x_values  y_values     id
1        1 0.7000696 Plot 1
2        2 0.3992786 Plot 1
3        3 0.2718229 Plot 1
4        4 0.4049928 Plot 1
5        5 0.4158864 Plot 1
6        6 0.1457746 Plot 1

Here, id is the column to specifies to which model run a value belongs. Plotting it can simply be done using:

library(ggplot2)
ggplot(df, aes(x = x_values, y = y_values)) + geom_point() + facet_wrap(~ id)

enter image description here

Jot eN · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-30 10:44:33Z

0

Another option is to use multiplot function:

library(ggplot2)
p <- list()
for(i in 1:4){
  p[[i]] <- ggplot(YOUR DATA, ETC.)
}
do.call(multiplot,p)

More information about that - http://www.cookbook-r.com/Graphs/Multiple_graphs_on_one_page_%28ggplot2%29/

edited Jun 30, 2014 at 10:44

answered Jun 30, 2014 at 10:39

Jot eN

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1 Comment

user3742038 Over a year ago

how would you give separate names to the plots, like plot1, plot2, plot3 within the loop?

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