Advanced R barplot customization



Take your base R barplot to the next step: modify axis, label orientation, margins, and more.

Barchart section Barplot tips

Start basic: the barplot() function


Graph #208 describes the most simple barchart you can do with R and the barplot() function. Graph #209 shows the basic options of barplot().

Let’s recall how to build a basic barplot:

# create dummy data
data <- data.frame(
  name=letters[1:5],
  value=sample(seq(4,15),5)
)

# The most basic barplot you can do:
barplot(height=data$value, names=data$name, col="#69b3a2")

Axis labels orientation with las


The las argument allows to change the orientation of the axis labels:

  • 0: always parallel to the axis
  • 1: always horizontal
  • 2: always perpendicular to the axis
  • 3: always vertical.

This is specially helpful for horizontal bar chart.

# create dummy data
data <- data.frame(
  name=letters[1:5],
  value=sample(seq(4,15),5)
)

# The most basic barplot you can do:
barplot(height=data$value, names=data$name, col="#69b3a2", horiz=T , las=1)

Change group labels with names.arg


Change the group names using the names.arg argument. The vector you provide must be the same length as the number of categories.

# create dummy data
data <- data.frame(
  name=letters[1:5],
  value=sample(seq(4,15),5)
)

# Uniform color
barplot(height=data$value, names.arg=c("group1","group2","group3","group4","group5"), col="#69b3a2")

Axis labels & axis title style


Customize the labels:

  • font.axis: font: 1: normal, 2: bold, 3: italic, 4: bold italic
  • col.axis: color
  • cex.axis: size

Customize axis title:

  • font.lab
  • col.lab
  • cex.lab
# create dummy data
data <- data.frame(
  name=letters[1:5],
  value=sample(seq(4,15),5)
)

# Customize labels (left)
barplot(height=data$value, names=data$name, 
        names.arg=c("group1","group2","group3","group4","group5"), 
        font.axis=2, 
        col.axis="orange", 
        cex.axis=1.5 
        )

# Customize title (right)
barplot(height=data$value, names=data$name, 
        xlab="category", 
        font.lab=2, 
        col.lab="orange", 
        cex.lab=2  
        )

Increase margin size


If your group names are long, you need to:

  • rotate them to avoid overlapping. This is done with las
  • increase bottom margin size using the mar parameter of the par() function. Four values are provided: bottom, left, top, right respectively.

Note: prefer a horizontal barplot in this case.

# create dummy data
data <- data.frame(
  name=letters[1:5],
  value=sample(seq(4,15),5)
)

# Increase margin size
par(mar=c(11,4,4,4))

# Uniform color
barplot(height=data$value,
        col="#69b3a2",
        names.arg=c("very long group name 1","very long group name 2","very long group name 3","very long group name 4","very long group name 5"), 
        las=2 
)

Related chart types


Barplot
Spider / Radar
Wordcloud
Parallel
Lollipop
Circular Barplot



❤️ 10 best R tricks ❤️

👋 After crafting hundreds of R charts over 12 years, I've distilled my top 10 tips and tricks. Receive them via email! One insight per day for the next 10 days! 🔥