bcat_plt_bar: Bar plot utility

In Rbearcat: University of Cincinnati Themes and Utilities for Econometrics and Data Science

Bar plot utility

Description

Create a bar plot using ggplot2 graphics. This function is a wrapper to create commonly used styles of bar plots. Additional layers can be added to this plot as needed. More complicated plots can be creating using individual ggplot2 layers.

Usage

bcat_plt_bar(
  df,
  x = NULL,
  y = NULL,
  fill = NULL,
  facet = NULL,
  stat = c("freq", "identity", "sum", "mean", "median"),
  position = c("stack", "dodge", "fill"),
  x_lab = ggplot2::waiver(),
  y_lab = ggplot2::waiver(),
  title = ggplot2::waiver(),
  subtitle = ggplot2::waiver(),
  caption = ggplot2::waiver(),
  legend_lab = ggplot2::waiver(),
  legend_position = "bottom",
  legend_hide = FALSE,
  x_scale = NULL,
  y_scale = NULL,
  fill_scale = Rbearcat::scale_fill_UC(),
  facet_scale = c("fixed", "free_y", "free_x", "free"),
  nrow = NULL,
  ncol = NULL,
  x_refline = NULL,
  y_refline = NULL,
  coord_flip = FALSE,
  order = FALSE
)

Arguments

df	The data to be displayed
x	Categorical variable to map to the x-axis
y	Variable to map to the y-axis. Only applicable if stat = "identity"
fill	Variable to map to the fill aesthetic
facet	Facetting variable(s). Note: must wrap in vars(), e.g, facet = vars(var1, var2)
stat	Statistic to map to y-axis. Default ("freq") calculates frequencies, "identity" plots the data as-is. "sum", "mean", and "median" calculate and display the respective summary stats Must specify y if using "identity".
position	For grouped data, either stack bars (position = "stack"), place bars side-by-side (position = "dodge"), or stack such that relative proportions within each group sum to 1 (position = "fill").
x_lab	Label for x-axis
y_lab	Label for y-axis
title	Plot title
subtitle	Plot subtitle
caption	Plot caption
legend_lab	Legend title
legend_position	legend position. "bottom" or "right"
legend_hide	Set to TRUE to hide the legend
x_scale	scale_x_ function to apply to x-axis.
y_scale	scale_y_ function to apply to y-axis.
fill_scale	scale_fill_ function to apply to colors.
facet_scale	Shoud facet scales be fixed ("fixed", the default), free ("free"), or free in one dimension ("free_x", "free_y")?
nrow	Number of facet rows
ncol	Number of facet columns
x_refline	Vector of x-values at which to draw vertical reference lines
y_refline	Vector of y-values at which to draw horizontal reference lines
coord_flip	Set to TRUE to flip x and y-axis. Useful if levels of x have long names.
order	Set to TRUE to arrange bars by frequency (if stat = "freq"), values of y (if stat = "identity"), or by other provided stat. Use if levels of x do not have a natural ordering.

Value

A ggplot2 plot object.

Author(s)

Saannidhya Rawat

See Also

Other plots: bcat_plt_area(), bcat_plt_box(), bcat_plt_coef(), bcat_plt_diag(), bcat_plt_hist(), bcat_plt_line(), bcat_plt_point(), bcat_plt_ts()

Examples

library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(scales)

# basic plot of frequencies
bcat_plt_bar(df = mpg,
             x = toupper(class),
             order = TRUE,
             x_lab = NULL,
             y_lab = NULL,
             title = "Number of Vehicles by Class and Drive Type",
             legend_lab = "Drive Type")

# can plot relative frequencies for each `x` by `fill` using `position = "fill"`
bcat_plt_bar(df = mpg,
             x = toupper(class),
             fill = drv,
             position = "fill",
             x_lab = NULL,
             y_lab = NULL,
             y_scale = scale_y_continuous(labels = percent_format()),
             title = "Percent of Vehicle Class for Each Drive Type",
             legend_lab = "Drive Type")

# use `stat` to compute and plot other statistics of interest
bcat_plt_bar(mpg,
             x = toupper(class),
             y = hwy,
             fill = factor(year),
             stat = "mean",
             order = TRUE,
             position = "dodge",
             y_refline = round(mean(mpg$hwy), 2),
             coord_flip = TRUE,
             x_lab = NULL,
             y_lab = "Highway MPG",
             title = "Average Highway MPG by Vehicle Class",
             legend_lab = NULL)

# use `stat = "identity"` to plot data directly from data set
mpg %>%
  group_by(year, class) %>%
  summarise(hwy = mean(hwy)) %>%
  bcat_plt_bar(x = toupper(class),
               y = hwy,
               fill = factor(year),
               stat = "identity",
               order = TRUE,
               position = "dodge",
               y_refline = round(mean(mpg$hwy), 2),
               coord_flip = TRUE,
               x_lab = NULL,
               y_lab = "Highway MPG",
               title = "Average Highway MPG by Vehicle Class",
               legend_lab = NULL)

Rbearcat documentation built on March 21, 2026, 5:07 p.m.