Visualise the distribution of a single continuous variable by dividing the x axis into bins and counting the number of observations in each bin. Histograms (geom_histogram()) display the counts with bars; frequency polygons (geom_freqpoly()) display the counts with lines. Frequency polygons are more suitable when you want to compare the distribution across the levels of a categorical variable.

gf_freqpoly(
  object = NULL,
  gformula = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  ...,
  alpha,
  color,
  group,
  linetype,
  linewidth,
  binwidth,
  bins,
  center,
  boundary,
  xlab,
  ylab,
  title,
  subtitle,
  caption,
  geom = "path",
  stat = "bin",
  position = "identity",
  show.legend = NA,
  show.help = NULL,
  inherit = TRUE,
  environment = parent.frame()
)

Arguments

object

When chaining, this holds an object produced in the earlier portions of the chain. Most users can safely ignore this argument. See details and examples.

gformula

A formula with shape ~ x or y ~ x. Faceting can be achieved by including | in the formula.

data

The data to be displayed in this layer. There are three options:

If NULL, the default, the data is inherited from the plot data as specified in the call to ggplot().

A data.frame, or other object, will override the plot data. All objects will be fortified to produce a data frame. See fortify() for which variables will be created.

A function will be called with a single argument, the plot data. The return value must be a data.frame, and will be used as the layer data. A function can be created from a formula (e.g. ~ head(.x, 10)).

...

Additional arguments. Typically these are (a) ggplot2 aesthetics to be set with attribute = value, (b) ggplot2 aesthetics to be mapped with attribute = ~ expression, or (c) attributes of the layer as a whole, which are set with attribute = value.

alpha

Opacity (0 = invisible, 1 = opaque).

color

A color or a formula used for mapping color.

group

Used for grouping.

linetype

A linetype (numeric or "dashed", "dotted", etc.) or a formula used for mapping linetype.

linewidth

A numerical line width or a formula used for mapping linewidth.

binwidth

The width of the bins. Can be specified as a numeric value or as a function that calculates width from unscaled x. Here, "unscaled x" refers to the original x values in the data, before application of any scale transformation. When specifying a function along with a grouping structure, the function will be called once per group. The default is to use the number of bins in bins, covering the range of the data. You should always override this value, exploring multiple widths to find the best to illustrate the stories in your data.

The bin width of a date variable is the number of days in each time; the bin width of a time variable is the number of seconds.

bins

Number of bins. Overridden by binwidth. Defaults to 30.

center, boundary

bin position specifiers. Only one, center or boundary, may be specified for a single plot. center specifies the center of one of the bins. boundary specifies the boundary between two bins. Note that if either is above or below the range of the data, things will be shifted by the appropriate integer multiple of binwidth. For example, to center on integers use binwidth = 1 and center = 0, even if 0 is outside the range of the data. Alternatively, this same alignment can be specified with binwidth = 1 and boundary = 0.5, even if 0.5 is outside the range of the data.

xlab

Label for x-axis. See also gf_labs().

ylab

Label for y-axis. See also gf_labs().

title, subtitle, caption

Title, sub-title, and caption for the plot. See also gf_labs().

geom, stat

Use to override the default connection between geom_histogram()/geom_freqpoly() and stat_bin().

position

Position adjustment, either as a string naming the adjustment (e.g. "jitter" to use position_jitter), or the result of a call to a position adjustment function. Use the latter if you need to change the settings of the adjustment.

show.legend

logical. Should this layer be included in the legends? NA, the default, includes if any aesthetics are mapped. FALSE never includes, and TRUE always includes. It can also be a named logical vector to finely select the aesthetics to display.

show.help

If TRUE, display some minimal help.

inherit

A logical indicating whether default attributes are inherited.

environment

An environment in which to look for variables not found in data.

Value

a gg object

Specifying plot attributes

Positional attributes (a.k.a, aesthetics) are specified using the formula in gformula. Setting and mapping of additional attributes can be done through the use of additional arguments. Attributes can be set can be set using arguments of the form attribute = value or mapped using arguments of the form attribute = ~ expression.

In formulas of the form A | B, B will be used to form facets using facet_wrap() or facet_grid(). This provides an alternative to gf_facet_wrap() and gf_facet_grid() that is terser and may feel more familiar to users of lattice.

Evaluation

Evaluation of the ggplot2 code occurs in the environment of gformula. This will typically do the right thing when formulas are created on the fly, but might not be the right thing if formulas created in one environment are used to create plots in another.

Examples

data(penguins, package = "palmerpenguins")
gf_histogram(~ bill_length_mm | species, alpha = 0.2, data = penguins, bins = 20) |>
  gf_freqpoly(~bill_length_mm, data = penguins, color = ~species, bins = 20)
#> Warning: Removed 2 rows containing non-finite values (`stat_bin()`).
#> Warning: Removed 2 rows containing non-finite values (`stat_bin()`).

gf_freqpoly(~bill_length_mm, color = ~species, data = penguins, bins = 20)
#> Warning: Removed 2 rows containing non-finite values (`stat_bin()`).

gf_dens(~bill_length_mm, data = penguins, color = "navy") |>
  gf_freqpoly(after_stat(density) ~ bill_length_mm,
    data = penguins,
    color = "red", bins = 20
  )
#> Warning: Ignoring unknown aesthetics: .
#> Warning: Removed 2 rows containing non-finite values (`stat_density()`).
#> Warning: Removed 2 rows containing non-finite values (`stat_bin()`).
#> Warning: The following aesthetics were dropped during statistical transformation: .
#>  This can happen when ggplot fails to infer the correct grouping structure in
#>   the data.
#>  Did you forget to specify a `group` aesthetic or to convert a numerical
#>   variable into a factor?