ggplot::geom_boxplot() How to change the width of one box group in R

r ggplot2 width boxplot box
simoet picture simoet · Sep 6, 2017 · Viewed 12k times · Source

I want to adapt the width of the box in the category "random" to the same width of the other boxes in the plot. It is now a single group, whereas the other groups contain two subgroups... Any ideas on how to do that?

The resulting image of the provided code and table Using geom_boxplot(width=0.2) just changes the width of all boxes. So far I used the following code: 

ggplot(TablePerCatchmentAndYear,aes(x=NoiseType, y= POA, fill = TempRes)) + 
 geom_boxplot(lwd=0.05) + ylim(c(-1.25, 1)) + theme(legend.position='bottom') + 
 ggtitle('title')+ scale_fill_discrete(name = '')

The data that I used for this is the following table:

TablePerCatchmentAndYear = structure(list(CatchmentModelType = c("2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_random_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_random_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_random_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_random_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_random_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_random_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_random_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_random_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_random_hourly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_random_hourly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_bench_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy4_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy2_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_weekly", "2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_weekly", 
"2126_Murg_2009_dry_LogNormSDdivBy1_weekly"), NoiseType = structure(c(1L, 
1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 4L, 4L, 4L, 4L, 4L, 4L, 4L, 
4L, 4L, 4L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 
2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 5L, 5L, 5L, 5L, 5L, 5L, 5L, 5L, 5L, 
5L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 4L, 4L, 4L, 4L, 4L, 
4L, 4L, 4L, 4L, 4L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3L, 2L, 
2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L), .Label = c("bench", "LogNormSDdivBy1", 
"LogNormSDdivBy2", "LogNormSDdivBy4", "random"), class = "factor"), 
    TempRes = structure(c(1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 
    1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 
    1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 
    1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 
    2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 
    2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 
    2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L), .Label = c("hourly", "weekly"), class = "factor"), 
    yearChar = c("dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", 
    "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", 
    "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", 
    "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", 
    "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", 
    "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", 
    "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", 
    "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", 
    "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", 
    "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", "dry", 
    "dry", "dry"), Parameterset = c(1L, 2L, 3L, 4L, 5L, 6L, 7L, 
    8L, 9L, 10L, 1L, 2L, 3L, 4L, 5L, 6L, 7L, 8L, 9L, 10L, 1L, 
    2L, 3L, 4L, 5L, 6L, 7L, 8L, 9L, 10L, 1L, 2L, 3L, 4L, 5L, 
    6L, 7L, 8L, 9L, 10L, 1L, 2L, 3L, 4L, 5L, 6L, 7L, 8L, 9L, 
    10L, 1L, 2L, 3L, 4L, 5L, 6L, 7L, 8L, 9L, 10L, 1L, 2L, 3L, 
    4L, 5L, 6L, 7L, 8L, 9L, 10L, 1L, 2L, 3L, 4L, 5L, 6L, 7L, 
    8L, 9L, 10L, 1L, 2L, 3L, 4L, 5L, 6L, 7L, 8L, 9L, 10L), Reff = c(0.6626, 
    0.6959, 0.7128, 0.6351, 0.7056, 0.6755, 0.655, 0.7155, 0.6839, 
    0.6564, 0.543, 0.5652, 0.5405, 0.5698, 0.5395, 0.5548, 0.5652, 
    0.5699, 0.5892, 0.578, 0.5366, 0.5052, 0.5389, 0.5194, 0.5555, 
    0.5529, 0.5315, 0.5092, 0.5137, 0.5417, 0.6635, 0.6427, 0.6561, 
    0.6702, 0.7035, 0.6789, 0.6631, 0.6544, 0.6432, 0.6384, 0.2273, 
    0.1757, -0.0048, 0.1647, 0.2586, 0.2926, 0.0739, 0.2607, 
    0.0799, 0.3595, 0.6679, 0.6712, 0.6557, 0.6906, 0.6777, 0.6748, 
    0.6531, 0.6779, 0.6708, 0.6446, 0.6227, 0.6404, 0.6474, 0.6221, 
    0.6089, 0.6159, 0.6194, 0.6382, 0.6323, 0.6198, 0.4703, 0.5456, 
    0.5883, 0.5114, 0.5188, 0.6257, 0.6036, 0.4501, 0.5154, 0.6, 
    0.2172, 0.245, 0.3625, 0.2793, 0.4073, 0.3257, 0.3435, 0.4297, 
    0.4375, 0.3451), LogReff = c(0.6498, 0.6665, 0.684, 0.6078, 
    0.6845, 0.6375, 0.6325, 0.6871, 0.6661, 0.6396, 0.5571, 0.5735, 
    0.5398, 0.5763, 0.5389, 0.5612, 0.5657, 0.578, 0.5999, 0.5881, 
    0.5806, 0.5445, 0.5782, 0.5724, 0.5832, 0.6113, 0.5763, 0.5439, 
    0.5626, 0.5757, 0.6855, 0.6787, 0.7003, 0.6393, 0.6684, 0.6924, 
    0.6897, 0.6956, 0.6408, 0.6801, 0.2823, -0.6217, -0.5084, 
    0.1936, 0.2246, 0.5335, 0.0143, 0.3124, -1.2437, -1.2655, 
    0.7041, 0.6973, 0.6834, 0.7032, 0.7116, 0.7042, 0.6811, 0.7148, 
    0.693, 0.6994, 0.6543, 0.6724, 0.6962, 0.657, 0.6783, 0.6621, 
    0.655, 0.6763, 0.6668, 0.6557, 0.6393, 0.6671, 0.726, 0.6832, 
    0.6848, 0.725, 0.7171, 0.6249, 0.6998, 0.7267, 0.3785, 0.4655, 
    0.5272, 0.5249, 0.5853, 0.4842, 0.4172, 0.6045, 0.5857, 0.5238
    ), VolumeError = c(0.9267, 0.931, 0.9401, 0.9225, 0.9507, 
    0.923, 0.9243, 0.9536, 0.9312, 0.9285, 0.8689, 0.8718, 0.8716, 
    0.8716, 0.8683, 0.8658, 0.8691, 0.8703, 0.8764, 0.8745, 0.8786, 
    0.8773, 0.8875, 0.8924, 0.8837, 0.8862, 0.8865, 0.8779, 0.8792, 
    0.8901, 0.8119, 0.8109, 0.8412, 0.8254, 0.8271, 0.8509, 0.8161, 
    0.8259, 0.8386, 0.8263, 0.8507, 0.5669, 0.4859, 0.6478, 0.6046, 
    0.85, 0.9425, 0.9153, 0.5295, 0.6555, 0.9777, 0.994, 0.9915, 
    0.9899, 0.9738, 0.9833, 0.9694, 0.9981, 0.9964, 0.9818, 0.997, 
    0.9822, 0.9954, 0.9996, 0.9768, 0.9644, 0.9974, 0.9962, 0.998, 
    0.9995, 0.9962, 0.9684, 0.99, 0.9625, 0.9595, 0.9853, 0.9783, 
    0.9227, 0.9661, 0.9783, 0.7664, 0.8786, 0.7615, 0.799, 0.7369, 
    0.7722, 0.8399, 0.7354, 0.771, 0.7745), MAREMeasure = c(0.532, 
    0.543, 0.557, 0.497, 0.5581, 0.5176, 0.5166, 0.5621, 0.5447, 
    0.5234, 0.445, 0.4554, 0.4322, 0.4579, 0.4298, 0.4448, 0.4487, 
    0.4582, 0.4762, 0.4675, 0.4718, 0.4432, 0.4725, 0.4721, 0.4725, 
    0.4989, 0.4711, 0.4428, 0.4577, 0.4704, 0.7183, 0.7166, 0.7144, 
    0.6848, 0.6943, 0.7034, 0.7202, 0.7194, 0.6832, 0.7105, 0.4913, 
    0.5758, 0.5658, 0.5817, 0.6574, 0.6191, 0.1196, 0.3526, 0.5357, 
    0.5475, 0.5931, 0.5882, 0.5782, 0.5886, 0.5984, 0.5945, 0.5728, 
    0.6089, 0.5834, 0.5962, 0.5434, 0.5581, 0.5848, 0.5467, 0.5703, 
    0.5478, 0.546, 0.5633, 0.555, 0.5458, 0.6243, 0.6468, 0.6736, 
    0.6175, 0.6219, 0.6604, 0.6769, 0.5766, 0.6301, 0.6793, 0.5227, 
    0.6047, 0.647, 0.6657, 0.661, 0.6324, 0.5751, 0.6707, 0.6532, 
    0.6621), POA = c(0.692775, 0.7091, 0.723475, 0.6656, 0.724725, 
    0.6884, 0.6821, 0.729575, 0.706475, 0.686975, 0.6035, 0.616475, 
    0.596025, 0.6189, 0.594125, 0.60665, 0.612175, 0.6191, 0.635425, 
    0.627025, 0.6169, 0.59255, 0.619275, 0.614075, 0.623725, 
    0.637325, 0.61635, 0.59345, 0.6033, 0.619475, 0.7198, 0.712225, 
    0.728, 0.704925, 0.723325, 0.7314, 0.722275, 0.723825, 0.70145, 
    0.713825, 0.4629, 0.174175, 0.134625, 0.39695, 0.4363, 0.5738, 
    0.287575, 0.46025, -0.02465, 0.07425, 0.7357, 0.737675, 0.7272, 
    0.743075, 0.740375, 0.7392, 0.7191, 0.749925, 0.7359, 0.7305, 
    0.70435, 0.713275, 0.73095, 0.70635, 0.708575, 0.69755, 0.70445, 
    0.7185, 0.713025, 0.7052, 0.682525, 0.706975, 0.744475, 0.69365, 
    0.69625, 0.7491, 0.743975, 0.643575, 0.70285, 0.746075, 0.4712, 
    0.54845, 0.57455, 0.567225, 0.597625, 0.553625, 0.543925, 
    0.610075, 0.61185, 0.576375)), .Names = c("CatchmentModelType", 
"NoiseType", "TempRes", "yearChar", "Parameterset", "Reff", "LogReff", 
"VolumeError", "MAREMeasure", "POA"), row.names = c(1L, 2L, 3L, 
4L, 5L, 6L, 7L, 8L, 9L, 10L, 1501L, 1502L, 1503L, 1504L, 1505L, 
1506L, 1507L, 1508L, 1509L, 1510L, 1001L, 1002L, 1003L, 1004L, 
1005L, 1006L, 1007L, 1008L, 1009L, 1010L, 501L, 502L, 503L, 504L, 
505L, 506L, 507L, 508L, 509L, 510L, 36001L, 36002L, 36003L, 36004L, 
36005L, 36006L, 36007L, 36008L, 36009L, 36010L, 401L, 402L, 403L, 
404L, 405L, 406L, 407L, 408L, 409L, 410L, 1901L, 1902L, 1903L, 
1904L, 1905L, 1906L, 1907L, 1908L, 1909L, 1910L, 1401L, 1402L, 
1403L, 1404L, 1405L, 1406L, 1407L, 1408L, 1409L, 1410L, 901L, 
902L, 903L, 904L, 905L, 906L, 907L, 908L, 909L, 910L), class = "data.frame")

Answer

aosmith picture aosmith · Jul 9, 2018

Starting in ggplot2 3.0.0 there is a preserve argument in position_dodge() that allows the width of a single element to be preserved. There is also a second dodging function, position_dodge2(), which changes how elements are spread over the plotting area with overlap.

If you want to have all boxes the same width with the single box centered on its x tick, you can use preserve = "single" in position_dodge2().

ggplot(TablePerCatchmentAndYear, aes(x = NoiseType, y = POA, fill = TempRes)) + 
     geom_boxplot(lwd = 0.05, position = position_dodge2(preserve = "single") ) + 
     ylim(-1.25, 1) + 
     theme(legend.position='bottom') + 
     scale_fill_discrete(name = '')

enter image description here

If you want to have all boxes the same width and mirror the dodging for the single element group with the other groups you can add preserve = "single" to position_dodge().

ggplot(TablePerCatchmentAndYear, aes(x = NoiseType, y = POA, fill = TempRes)) + 
     geom_boxplot(lwd = 0.05, position = position_dodge(preserve = "single") ) + 
     ylim(-1.25, 1) + 
     theme(legend.position='bottom') + 
     scale_fill_discrete(name = '')

enter image description here

Related questions

Plot two graphs in same plot in R

I would like to plot y1 and y2 in the same plot. x <- seq(-2, 2, 0.05) y1 <- pnorm(x) y2 <- pnorm(x, 1, 1) plot(x, y1, type = "l", col = "red") plot(x, y2, type = "l", col = "…

Read More
Rotating and spacing axis labels in ggplot2

I have a plot where the x-axis is a factor whose labels are long. While probably not an ideal visualization, for now I'd like to simply rotate these labels to be vertical. I've figured this part out with the code …

Read More
How to set limits for axes in ggplot2 R plots?

I plot the following: library(ggplot2) carrots <- data.frame(length = rnorm(500000, 10000, 10000)) cukes <- data.frame(length = rnorm(50000, 10000, 20000)) carrots$veg <- 'carrot' cukes$veg <- 'cuke' vegLengths <- rbind(carrots, cukes) ggplot(vegLengths, aes(length, …

Read More