Move Axis Labels in ggplot in R
Last Updated :
17 Jun, 2021
In this article, we are going to see how to move the axis labels using ggplot2 bar plot in the R programming language.
First, you need to install the ggplot2 package if it is not previously installed in R Studio. For creating a simple bar plot we will use the function geom_bar( ).
Syntax:
geom_bar(stat, fill, color, width)
Parameters :
- stat : Set the stat parameter to identify the mode.
- fill : Represents color inside the bars.
- color : Represents color of outlines of the bars.
- width : Represents width of the bars.
Data in use:
Let us see what the default plot will look like without any modifications.
R
library(ggplot2)
# Inserting data
ODI <- data.frame(match=c("M-1","M-2","M-3","M-4"),
runs=c(67,37,74,10))
head(ODI)
# Default axis labels in ggplot2 bar plot
perf <-ggplot(data=ODI, aes(x=match, y=runs,fill=match))+
geom_bar(stat="identity")
perf
Output:
By default, R adds the vector names which are assigned in the Data Frame as the axis title. To manually add axis title use the following commands :
// To modify the x axis label
xlab("X_axis_Labelname")
// To modify the y axis label
ylab("Y_axis_Labelname")
// Simultaneously modify both x and y axes title
labs(x="X_axis_Labelname",y="Y_axis_Labelname")
Example:
R
library(ggplot2)
# Inserting data
ODI <- data.frame(match=c("M-1","M-2","M-3","M-4"),
runs=c(67,37,74,10))
head(ODI)
# Default axis labels in ggplot2 bar plot
perf <-ggplot(data=ODI, aes(x=match, y=runs,fill=match))+
geom_bar(stat="identity")
perf
# Manually adding axis labels
ggp <- perf+labs(x="Matches",y="Runs Scored")
ggp
Output:
To perform any modifications in the axis labels we use the function element_text( ). The arguments of this function are :
- Color
- Size
- Face
- Family
- lineheight
- hjust and vjust
The argument hjust (Horizontal Adjust) or vjust (Vertical Adjust) is used to move the axis labels. They take numbers in range [0,1] where :
// Depicts left most corner of the axis
hjust = 0
// Depicts middle of the axis
hjust = 0.5
// Depicts right most corner of the axis
hjust = 1
Let us first create a plot with axis labels towards the left.
Example:
R
library(ggplot2)
# Inserting data
ODI <- data.frame(match=c("M-1","M-2","M-3","M-4"),
runs=c(67,37,74,10))
head(ODI)
# Default axis labels in ggplot2 bar plot
perf <-ggplot(data=ODI, aes(x=match, y=runs,fill=match))+
geom_bar(stat="identity")
perf
# Manually adding axis labels
ggp <- perf+labs(x="Matches",y="Runs Scored")
ggp
# Moving axis label to left
ggp + theme(
axis.title.x = element_text(hjust=0),
axis.title.y = element_text(hjust=0)
)
Output:
Now lets move them to the center.
Example:
R
library(ggplot2)
# Inserting data
ODI <- data.frame(match=c("M-1","M-2","M-3","M-4"),
runs=c(67,37,74,10))
head(ODI)
# Default axis labels in ggplot2 bar plot
perf <-ggplot(data=ODI, aes(x=match, y=runs,fill=match))+
geom_bar(stat="identity")
perf
# Manually adding axis labels
ggp <- perf+labs(x="Matches",y="Runs Scored")
ggp
# Moving axis label in middle
ggp + theme(
axis.title.x = element_text(hjust=0.5),
axis.title.y = element_text(hjust=0.5)
)
Output:
Similar can be done for moving them towards the right.
Example:
R
library(ggplot2)
# Inserting data
ODI <- data.frame(match=c("M-1","M-2","M-3","M-4"),
runs=c(67,37,74,10))
head(ODI)
# Default axis labels in ggplot2 bar plot
perf <-ggplot(data=ODI, aes(x=match, y=runs,fill=match))+
geom_bar(stat="identity")
perf
# Manually adding axis labels
ggp <- perf+labs(x="Matches",y="Runs Scored")
ggp
# Moving axis label to right
ggp + theme(
axis.title.x = element_text(hjust=1),
axis.title.y = element_text(hjust=1)
)
Output:
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