Barplot | the R Graph Gallery

Step by step - ggplot2 and geom_bar()

ggplot2 allows to build barplot thanks to the geom_bar() function. The examples below will guide you through the basics of this tool:

Most basic barplot

The most basic barplot you can do with geom_bar(), using default settings.

Custom color

A few examples showing how to custom barplot color.

Horizontal barchart

It makes sense to make your barchart horizontal: group labels are now much easier to read

Bar width

You can control bar width using the width argument of geom_bar()

Control group order

Reordering categories in the barchart is a crucial step for an insightful figure: learn how to do it.

Variable width

A barplot with variable width to represent categories sample size.

Error bars

How to add error bars on a barplot, and why should be careful about it.

Textured black and white barplot

How to add textures into the bars of a barplot with ggpattern

Black and white barplot

How to create a simple black and white barplot

Base R and the barplot() function

Basic R can build quality barplots thanks to the barplot() function. Here is a list of examples guiding you through the most common customization you will need.

Most basic

Most basic usage of the barplot() function.

Control color

How to control barplot color, how to pick a nice color palette.

General customization

Title, axis labels, axis limits, and more.

Horizontal barplot

A horizontal version of the barplot, thanks to the horiz argument.

Bar width

Play with bar width and space between bars.

Bar texture

Change bar texture with the density and angle parameters of the barplot function.

Axis features

Change font, color and size of axis labels and titles

Increase margin

Increase margin size with the mar argument of the par function

Add error bars

Add error bars on barplot to show confidence interval or standard deviation

Number of obs

Add number of observation on top of barplot, and other customization

Interactive barplot

Interactivity is a great way to enhance your graphics, and the ggiraph package makes it very easy! The following graphic shows what an interactive bar chart can look like. Try hovering over it!

Code

Interactive mekko chart

A Mekko chart, also known as a Marimekko chart, is a two-dimensional stacked bar chart where both the height and width of each bar segment represent different data dimensions, making it useful for visualizing categorical data distributions and market share comparisons.

Code

🌐 From the web

The web is full of astonishing R charts made by awesome bloggers. The R graph gallery tries to display some of the best creations and explain how their source code works. If you want to display your work here, please drop me a word or even better, submit a Pull Request!

Barplot with The Economist's style

The example is a reproduction of a barplot published in The Economist. The barplot itself is simple, but all the customization going with it to mimick the style are worth a read.

A customized circular barplot made with R and ggplot2

Circular barplot with several features per group

Compare the features of several hiking locations in Washington with a highly customized circular barplot.
A work by Tobias Stalder

ggStatsPlot

Compare the distribution of 3 groups using a combination of boxplot and violin plot with ggStatsPlot.

Probably better than a barplot if you have several values per group!

Dumbell chart

A dumbell chart is a specific type of barplot that allows to compare the value of 2 values.