Can I zoom in a plot and have the other plot to zoom in the same way? (ggplot and plotly)

Question

Reproducible

Look at the following reproducible example:

# libraries
library(ggplot2)
library(plotly)

# data
set.seed(1)
df <- data.frame(x = rnorm(100), y = rnorm(100))

# ggplots
g1 <- g2 <- ggplotly(ggplot(df, aes(x, y)) + geom_point())

# set together
subplot(g1, g2, shareX = TRUE, shareY = TRUE)

This is the result:

When I zoom over the Y axis in one of the two plots the other one will update consequently, however if I zoom over the X axis only the plot I'm working on will change.

Problem

When I do this:

I get this:

Notice that the X axis on the right didn't change. shareX = TRUE doesn't do the trick.

How can I solve?

Answer 1

You could use matches with layout to each ggplotly to change the x axis automatically on both graphs like this:

# libraries
library(ggplot2)
library(plotly)

# data
set.seed(1)
df <- data.frame(x = rnorm(100), y = rnorm(100))

# ggplots
g1 <- g2 <- ggplotly(ggplot(df, aes(x, y)) + geom_point()) %>% 
  layout(xaxis = list(matches = "x"))

# set together
subplot(g1, g2, shareX = TRUE, shareY = TRUE) 

^{Created on 2023-02-10 with reprex v2.0.2}

Here an example:

Answer 2

You can use plot_ly() function rather than ggplotly() for making the plots. This is because in addition to creating static plots, plots are interactive, allowing you to zoom, hover, and interact with the data in various ways.

library(plotly)

set.seed(1)
df <- data.frame(x = rnorm(100), y = rnorm(100))

g1 <- plot_ly(df, x = ~x, y = ~y, type = "scatter", mode = "markers")
g2 <- plot_ly(df, x = ~x, y = ~y, type = "scatter", mode = "markers")

subplot(g1, g2, nrows = 1, shareX = TRUE, shareY = TRUE)

The code ensures that the X and Y axes are synchronized between the two plots. Hope it could helps!

output plot

Zoomed plots between x(0-2) and y(0-0.5) as example: