This post shows how to use the gridExtra
library to combine several ggplot2
charts on the same figure. Several examples are provided, illustrating several ways to split the graphing window.
Mixing multiple graphs on the same page is a common practice. It allows to summarize a lot of information on the same figure, and is for instance widely used for scientific publication.
The gridExtra package makes it a breeze. It offers the grid.arrange()
function that does exactly that. Its nrow
argument allows to specify how to arrange the layout.
For more complex layout, the arrangeGrob()
functions allows to do some nesting. Here are 4 examples to illustrate how gridExtra
works:
# libraries
library(ggplot2)
library(gridExtra)
# Make 3 simple graphics:
g1 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(x=qsec)) + geom_density(fill="slateblue")
g2 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(x=drat, y=qsec, color=cyl)) + geom_point(size=5) + theme(legend.position="none")
g3 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(x=factor(cyl), y=qsec, fill=cyl)) + geom_boxplot() + theme(legend.position="none")
g4 <- ggplot(mtcars , aes(x=factor(cyl), fill=factor(cyl))) + geom_bar()
# Plots
grid.arrange(g2, arrangeGrob(g3, g4, ncol=2), nrow = 2)