CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rggplot2bar-chart
Eddie
Eddie

Reputation: 23

Stacked bar charts ggplot2 - reorder fill

I'm plotting a stacked bar chart using ggplot2. I've created a dataframe (df_car) with the variables car_make, color and proportion, the latter being numerical. There are 20 types of car_make which go along the x-axis, and 4 of color which go as fills. The proportion for each car_make adds up to 1.

I didn't want the car_make in alphabetical order so I re-ordered it:

df_car$car_make <- factor(df_car$car_make, levels = c("toyota", "ford", "mercedes", etc.)

Then I re-ordered the fill levels:

df_car$color <- factor(df_car$color, levels = c("red", "white", "black", "silver")

I plot the stacked bar plot:

bp_car<- ggplot(df_car, aes(x=car_make, y=proportion, fill=color)) + geom_bar(stat="identity")

The x-axis comes out as I specified. But the order of the bar fills remains alphabetical...only the order of the legend responds and comes out as specified. Performing...

levels(df_car$color)

gives...

"red", "white", "black", "silver"

How can I get the bar fills to re-order?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 976

Answers (1)

Gregor Thomas
Gregor Thomas

Reputation: 146224

You don't need a data column with color names in it (ggplot is different from base graphics in this way). Once your car levels are ordered appropriately (as you've done), you need to set a fill color scale

bp_car <- ggplot(df_car, aes(x = car_make, y = proportion, fill = car_make)) +
    geom_bar(stat="identity") +
    scale_fill_manual(values = c("red", "white", "black", "silver"))

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions