adding x and y axis labels in ggplot2

Brett Michael picture Brett Michael · May 3, 2012 · Viewed 248k times · Source

How do I change the x and y labels on this graph please?

library(Sleuth2)
library(ggplot2)
discharge<-ex1221new$Discharge
area<-ex1221new$Area
nitrogen<-ex1221new$NO3
p <- ggplot(ex1221new, aes(discharge, area), main="Point")
p + geom_point(aes(size= nitrogen)) + 
    scale_area() + 
    opts(title = expression("Weighted Scatterplot of Watershed Area vs. Discharge and Nitrogen Levels (PPM)"), 
         subtitle="n=41")

Answer

Brian Diggs picture Brian Diggs · May 4, 2012

[Note: edited to modernize ggplot syntax]

Your example is not reproducible since there is no ex1221new (there is an ex1221 in Sleuth2, so I guess that is what you meant). Also, you don't need (and shouldn't) pull columns out to send to ggplot. One advantage is that ggplot works with data.frames directly.

You can set the labels with xlab() and ylab(), or make it part of the scale_*.* call.

library("Sleuth2")
library("ggplot2")
ggplot(ex1221, aes(Discharge, Area)) +
  geom_point(aes(size=NO3)) + 
  scale_size_area() + 
  xlab("My x label") +
  ylab("My y label") +
  ggtitle("Weighted Scatterplot of Watershed Area vs. Discharge and Nitrogen Levels (PPM)")

enter image description here

ggplot(ex1221, aes(Discharge, Area)) +
  geom_point(aes(size=NO3)) + 
  scale_size_area("Nitrogen") + 
  scale_x_continuous("My x label") +
  scale_y_continuous("My y label") +
  ggtitle("Weighted Scatterplot of Watershed Area vs. Discharge and Nitrogen Levels (PPM)")

enter image description here

An alternate way to specify just labels (handy if you are not changing any other aspects of the scales) is using the labs function

ggplot(ex1221, aes(Discharge, Area)) +
  geom_point(aes(size=NO3)) + 
  scale_size_area() + 
  labs(size= "Nitrogen",
       x = "My x label",
       y = "My y label",
       title = "Weighted Scatterplot of Watershed Area vs. Discharge and Nitrogen Levels (PPM)")

which gives an identical figure to the one above.