geom_text how to position the text on bar as I want?

tmhs picture tmhs · Oct 24, 2016 · Viewed 70.9k times · Source

I would like to adjust the text on the barplot.

I tried to adjust hjust/vjust to display as I like it but it seems like it's not working properly.

ggplot(data) + 
        geom_bar(aes(name, count, 
        fill = week), stat='identity', position = 'dodge') +
        geom_text(aes(name,count, 
        label=count),hjust=0.5, vjust=3, size=2,
        position = position_dodge(width = 1)) + 
        coord_flip()

enter image description here

So I would like the numbers to situate on each bar, in the middle, at the right-edge so it's readable without overlapping like the last parts.

Answer

tchakravarty picture tchakravarty · Oct 24, 2016

Edit:

The easier solution to get hjust/vjust to behave intelligently is to add the group aesthetic to geom_text and then hjust & position adjust for the group automatically.

1. Vertical Orientation

ggplot(data) + 
  geom_bar(
    aes(x = name, y = count, fill = week, group = week), 
    stat='identity', position = 'dodge'
  ) +
  geom_text(
    aes(x = name, y = count, label = count, group = week),
    position = position_dodge(width = 1),
    vjust = -0.5, size = 2
  ) + 
  theme_bw()

This gives:

enter image description here

2. Horizontal Orientation

ggplot(data) + 
  geom_bar(
    aes(x = name, y = count, fill = week, group = week), 
    stat='identity', position = 'dodge'
  ) +
  geom_text(
    aes(x = name, y = count, label = count, group = week), 
    hjust = -0.5, size = 2,
    position = position_dodge(width = 1),
    inherit.aes = TRUE
  ) + 
  coord_flip() + 
  theme_bw()

This gives:

enter image description here


This is not necessarily the most general way to do this, but you can have a fill dependent hjust (or vjust, depending on the orientation) variable. It is not entirely clear to me how to select the value of the adjustment parameter, and currently it is based on what looks right. Perhaps someone else can suggest a more general way of picking this parameter value.

1. Vertical Orientation

library(dplyr)
library(ggplot2)

# generate some data
data = data_frame(
  week = as.factor(rep(c(1, 2), times = 5)),
  name = as.factor(rep(LETTERS[1:5], times = 2)),
  count = rpois(n = 10, lambda = 20),
  hjust = if_else(week == 1, 5, -5),
  vjust = if_else(week == 1, 3.5, -3.5)
)

# Horizontal
ggplot(data) + 
  geom_bar(
    aes(x = name, y = count, fill = week, group = week), 
    stat='identity', position = 'dodge'
  ) +
  geom_text(
    aes(x = name, y = count, label = count, vjust = vjust), 
    hjust = -0.5, size = 2,
    inherit.aes = TRUE
  ) + 
  coord_flip() + 
  theme_bw() 

Here is what that looks like:

enter image description here

2. Horizontal Orientation

ggplot(data) + 
  geom_bar(
    aes(x = name, y = count, fill = week, group = week), 
    stat='identity', position = 'dodge'
  ) +
  geom_text(
    aes(x = name, y = count, label = count, vjust = vjust), 
    hjust = -0.5, size = 2,
    inherit.aes = TRUE
  ) + 
  coord_flip() + 
  theme_bw()

Here is what that looks like:

enter image description here