R/get_legend.R

In cowplot: Streamlined Plot Theme and Plot Annotations for 'ggplot2'

#' Retrieve the legend of a plot
#'
#' This function extracts just the legend from a ggplot
#'
#' @param plot A ggplot or gtable from which to retrieve the legend
#' @param legend The specific legend to return, in case there is more than one. Options
#'   are `right`, `left`, `bottom`, `top`, `inside`. A value of `NULL` returns the
#'   first legend.
#' @return A gtable object holding just the legend or \code{NULL} if there is no legend.
#' @examples
#' library(ggplot2)
#' p <- ggplot(mpg) +
#'        aes(displ, hwy, color = factor(cyl), shape = factor(year)) +
#'        geom_point() +
#'        guides(shape = guide_legend(position = "bottom"))
#' p
#'
#' # default settings retrieve the first legend
#' ggdraw(get_legend(p))
#' # retrieve the bottom legend
#' ggdraw(get_legend(p, legend = "bottom"))
#' # retrieve the right legend
#' ggdraw(get_legend(p, legend = "right"))
#'
#' # example demonstrating plot alignment with legend
#' p1 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, disp)) + geom_line()
#' plot.mpg <- ggplot(mpg, aes(x = cty, y = hwy, colour = factor(cyl))) + geom_point(size=2.5)
#' # note that these cannot be aligned vertically due to the legend in the plot.mpg
#' ggdraw(plot_grid(p1, plot.mpg, ncol=1, align='v'))
#'
#' legend <- get_legend(plot.mpg)
#' plot.mpg <- plot.mpg + theme(legend.position='none')
#' # now plots are aligned vertically with the legend to the right
#' ggdraw(plot_grid(plot_grid(p1, plot.mpg, ncol=1, align='v'),
#'                  plot_grid(NULL, legend, ncol=1),
#'                  rel_widths=c(1, 0.2)))
#' @export
get_legend <- function(plot, legend = NULL) {
  pattern <- "guide-box"
  if (!is.null(legend)) {
    pattern <- paste0(pattern, "-", legend)
  }
  get_plot_component(plot, pattern, return_all = FALSE)
}