Error in trying to write a plotting function in ggplot2

Question

I am trying to write a function in ggplot2 and obtain this error message:

Error in layout_base(data, vars, drop = drop) :
At least one layer must contain all variables used for facetting

Here is my code:

growth.plot<-function(data,x,y,fac){ 
gp <- ggplot(data = data,aes(x = x, y = y)) 
gp <- gp + geom_point()  + facet_wrap(~ fac)
return(gp)
}

growth.plot(data=mydata, x=x.var, y=y.var,fac= fac.var)

If I try without the function, the plot appears perfectly

gp1 <- ggplot(data = mydata,aes(x = x.var), y = y.var))
gp1+ geom_point()+ facet_wrap(~ fac.var) # this works

Have a look at aes_string.

Roland
– Roland

2014-10-02 09:45:54 +00:00
Commented Oct 2, 2014 at 9:45 — Roland
– Roland, Commented Oct 2, 2014 at 9:45
Thank you, I tried but unfortunatelly it does not work.

user34771
– user34771

2014-10-02 16:25:50 +00:00
Commented Oct 2, 2014 at 16:25 — user34771
– user34771, Commented Oct 2, 2014 at 16:25
I think this answer may be what you are looking for.

aosmith
– aosmith

2014-10-02 16:55:44 +00:00
Commented Oct 2, 2014 at 16:55 — aosmith
– aosmith, Commented Oct 2, 2014 at 16:55

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

0

Here is reproducible solution where your x, y, and fac arguments must be passed as character:

library(ggplot2)

make_plot = function(data, x, y, fac) {
    p = ggplot(data, aes_string(x=x, y=y, colour=fac)) +
        geom_point(size=3) +
        facet_wrap(as.formula(paste("~", fac)))
    return(p)
}

p = make_plot(iris, x="Sepal.Length", y="Petal.Length", fac="Species")

ggsave("iris_plot.png", plot=p, height=4, width=8, dpi=120)

enter image description here

Thanks to commenters @Roland and @aosmith for pointing the way to this solution.

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Oct 2, 2014 at 20:13

bdemarest

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1 Comment

user34771 Over a year ago

Thank you very much, it works perfectly. Never easy to find its way through the small R subtleties.

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