Label minimum and maximum of scale fill gradient legend with text: ggplot2

nofunsally picture nofunsally · Jun 17, 2014 · Viewed 47.5k times · Source

I have a plot created in ggplot2 that uses scale_fill_gradientn. I'd like to add text at the minimum and maximum of the scale legend. For example, at the legend minimum display "Minimum" and at the legend maximum display "Maximum". There are posts using discrete fills and adding labels with numbers instead of text (e.g. here), but I am unsure how to use the labels feature with scale_fill_gradientn to only insert text at the min and max. At the present I am apt to getting errors:

Error in scale_labels.continuous(scale, breaks) : 
Breaks and labels are different lengths

Is this text label possible within ggplot2 for this type of scale / fill?

# The example code here produces an plot for illustrative purposes only.
# create data frame, from ggplot2 documentation
df <- expand.grid(x = 0:5, y = 0:5) 
df$z <- runif(nrow(df))

#plot
ggplot(df, aes(x, y, fill = z)) + geom_raster() + 
scale_fill_gradientn(colours=topo.colors(7),na.value = "transparent")

Answer

Didzis Elferts picture Didzis Elferts · Jun 17, 2014

For scale_fill_gradientn() you should provide both arguments: breaks= and labels= with the same length. With argument limits= you extend colorbar to minimum and maximum value you need.

ggplot(df, aes(x, y, fill = z)) + geom_raster() + 
      scale_fill_gradientn(colours=topo.colors(7),na.value = "transparent",
                           breaks=c(0,0.5,1),labels=c("Minimum",0.5,"Maximum"),
                           limits=c(0,1))

enter image description here