HeatmapAtomic: Atomic heatmap (internal)

In plotthis: High-Level Plotting Built Upon 'ggplot2' and Other Plotting Packages

Atomic heatmap (internal)

Description

Core implementation for drawing a single heatmap using ComplexHeatmap::Heatmap. This function takes pre-processed data (already in long format with resolved row/column identifiers) and handles colour mapping, cell rendering, annotation construction, and the final draw() call. It is the workhorse behind the exported Heatmap function and is also reused by LinkedHeatmapAtomic (via return_ht = TRUE).

Usage

HeatmapAtomic(
  data,
  values_by,
  values_fill = NA,
  rows_by = NULL,
  rows_split_by = NULL,
  columns_by = NULL,
  columns_split_by = NULL,
  palette = "RdBu",
  palcolor = NULL,
  palreverse = FALSE,
  pie_size_name = "size",
  pie_size = NULL,
  pie_values = "length",
  pie_group_by = NULL,
  pie_palette = "Spectral",
  pie_palcolor = NULL,
  bars_sample = 100,
  label = scales::label_number_auto(),
  label_size = 10,
  label_color = "black",
  label_name = "label",
  mark = identity,
  mark_color = "black",
  mark_size = 1,
  mark_name = "mark",
  violin_fill = NULL,
  boxplot_fill = NULL,
  dot_size = 8,
  dot_size_name = "size",
  legend_items = NULL,
  legend_discrete = FALSE,
  legend.position = "right",
  legend.direction = "vertical",
  lower_quantile = 0,
  upper_quantile = 0.99,
  lower_cutoff = NULL,
  upper_cutoff = NULL,
  add_bg = FALSE,
  bg_alpha = 0.5,
  keep_na = FALSE,
  keep_empty = FALSE,
  add_reticle = FALSE,
  reticle_color = "grey",
  cluster_columns = TRUE,
  cluster_rows = TRUE,
  show_row_names = NULL,
  show_column_names = NULL,
  border = TRUE,
  title = NULL,
  column_title = NULL,
  row_title = NULL,
  na_col = "grey85",
  row_names_side = "right",
  column_names_side = "bottom",
  row_annotation = NULL,
  row_annotation_side = NULL,
  row_annotation_palette = NULL,
  row_annotation_palcolor = NULL,
  row_annotation_type = NULL,
  row_annotation_params = NULL,
  row_annotation_agg = NULL,
  column_annotation = NULL,
  column_annotation_side = NULL,
  column_annotation_palette = NULL,
  column_annotation_palcolor = NULL,
  column_annotation_type = NULL,
  column_annotation_params = NULL,
  column_annotation_agg = NULL,
  flip = FALSE,
  alpha = 1,
  seed = 8525,
  padding = 15,
  base_size = 1,
  aspect.ratio = NULL,
  draw_opts = list(),
  return_ht = FALSE,
  layer_fun_callback = NULL,
  cell_type = "tile",
  cell_agg = NULL,
  ...
)

Arguments

data	A data frame in long format. Each row represents one observation; columns specify row/column membership and the value to encode as colour.
values_by	A character of column name in data that contains the values to be plotted. This is required when in_form is "long". For other formats, the values are pivoted into a column named by values_by.
values_fill	A value used to fill missing cells in the matrix. Default NA. Missing values prevent clustering when not filled.
rows_by	A vector of column names in data that contains the row information. This is used to create the rows of the heatmap. When in_form is "long" or "wide-columns", this is requied, and multiple columns can be specified, which will be concatenated by rows_by_sep into a single column.
rows_split_by	A character of column name in data that contains the split information for rows.
columns_by	A vector of column names in data that contains the column information. This is used to create the columns of the heatmap. When in_form is "long" or "wide-rows", this is required, and multiple columns can be specified, which will be concatenated by columns_by_sep into a single column.
columns_split_by	A character of column name in data that contains the split information for columns.
palette	A character string naming a palette (see show_palettes) or a character vector of colours for the main heatmap colour scale. Default "RdBu".
palcolor	A custom colour vector overriding palette.
palreverse	A logical value indicating whether to reverse the palette. Default is FALSE.
pie_size_name	Legend title for the pie size.
pie_size	A numeric value or function returning the pie radius. When a function, it receives the count of groups in the pie.
pie_values	A function or string (convertible via match.arg) to compute the value represented by each pie slice. Default "length" counts observations per group.
pie_group_by	A character of column name in data that contains the group information for pie charts. This is used to create pie charts in the heatmap when cell_type is "pie".
pie_palette, pie_palcolor	Palette and custom colours for pie slice fill colours.
bars_sample	Number of observations sampled per cell when cell_type = "bars". Default 100.
label	A function to compute text labels when cell_type = "label" (or "label+mark"). Receives the aggregated value for a cell and optionally row/column indices and names. See below for the full dispatch contract.
label_size	Default point size for label text (used as fallback when the label function does not return a size field).
label_color	Default colour for label text (fallback).
label_name	Legend title for the label colour scale. The legend is shown automatically when the label function returns a legend field for at least one cell.
mark	A function to compute mark symbols when cell_type = "mark" (or "label+mark"). Same dispatch contract as label.
mark_color	Default mark colour (fallback).
mark_size	Default mark stroke width (lwd) in pt (fallback).
mark_name	Legend title for the mark colour scale.
violin_fill	A character vector of colours to use as fill for violin plots when cell_type = "violin". If NULL, the annotation colour is used.
boxplot_fill	A character vector of colours to use as fill for boxplots when cell_type = "boxplot". If NULL, the annotation colour is used.
dot_size	Dot size when cell_type = "dot". Can be a numeric value or a function.
dot_size_name	Legend title for the dot size.
legend_items	A named numeric vector specifying custom legend entries for the main colour scale. Names become the displayed labels.
legend_discrete	Logical; if TRUE, treat the main colour scale as discrete.
legend.position	A character string specifying the position of the legend. if waiver(), for single groups, the legend will be "none", otherwise "right".
legend.direction	A character string specifying the direction of the legend.
lower_quantile, upper_quantile, lower_cutoff, upper_cutoff	Quantile or explicit cutoffs for clipping the colour scale. Applied to aggregated values for tile / label cell types; applied to raw values for bars / violin / boxplot types.
add_bg	Logical; if TRUE, add a background fill behind non-tile cell types. Not used for cell_type = "tile" or "bars".
bg_alpha	Numeric in [0, 1] for background transparency.
keep_na	A logical value or a character to replace the NA values in the data. It can also take a named list to specify different behavior for different columns. If TRUE or NA, NA values will be replaced with NA. If FALSE, NA values will be removed from the data before plotting. If a character string is provided, NA values will be replaced with the provided string. If a named vector/list is provided, the names should be the column names to apply the behavior to, and the values should be one of TRUE, FALSE, or a character string. Without a named vector/list, the behavior applies to categorical/character columns used on the plot, for example, the x, group_by, fill_by, etc.
keep_empty	One of FALSE, TRUE and "level". It can also take a named list to specify different behavior for different columns. Without a named list, the behavior applies to the categorical/character columns used on the plot, for example, the x, group_by, fill_by, etc. FALSE (default): Drop empty factor levels from the data before plotting. TRUE: Keep empty factor levels and show them as a separate category in the plot. "level": Keep empty factor levels, but do not show them in the plot. But they will be assigned colors from the palette to maintain consistency across multiple plots. Alias: levels
add_reticle	Logical; if TRUE, draw a reticle (crosshair pattern) over the heatmap.
reticle_color	Colour for the reticle lines.
cluster_columns	Logical; cluster the columns. If TRUE and columns_split_by is provided, clustering is applied within each split group.
cluster_rows	Logical; cluster the rows. If TRUE and rows_split_by is provided, clustering is applied within each split group.
show_row_names	Logical; show row names. If TRUE, the legend of the row group annotation is hidden.
show_column_names	Logical; show column names. If TRUE, the legend of the column group annotation is hidden.
border	A logical value indicating whether to draw borders around the heatmap. If TRUE, slice borders are also drawn. Default TRUE.
title	The global (column) title of the heatmap.
column_title	Character string/vector used as the column group annotation title.
row_title	Character string/vector used as the row group annotation title.
na_col	Colour for NA cells. Default "grey85".
row_names_side	Side for row names. Default "right".
column_names_side	Side for column names. Default "bottom".
row_annotation	A structured list specifying row annotations. Same format as column_annotation. Sides default to "left". Aliases: .row/.rows for rows_by, .row.split/.rows.split for rows_split_by.
row_annotation_side	Deprecated: use row_annotation with the side sub-key instead.
row_annotation_palette	Deprecated: use row_annotation with the palette sub-key instead.
row_annotation_palcolor	Deprecated: use row_annotation with the palcolor sub-key instead.
row_annotation_type	Deprecated: use row_annotation with the type sub-key instead.
row_annotation_params	Deprecated: use row_annotation with the params sub-key instead.
row_annotation_agg	Deprecated: use row_annotation with the agg sub-key instead.
column_annotation	A structured list specifying column annotations. Each entry is a named list with sub-keys: col Column name in data supplying the annotation values. If omitted, the entry name is used as the column name. side "top" or "bottom". palette Palette name (see show_palettes). palcolor Custom colour vector overriding palette. type Annotation type: "auto", "simple", "pie", "ring", "bar", "violin", "boxplot", "density", "label", "points", "lines". params A list of additional parameters passed to the annotation constructor. FALSE disables the annotation. $show_legend controls legend visibility. See HeatmapAnnotation. agg A function to aggregate values for the annotation. Shortcuts: column_annotation = list(Score = "score") is short for list(Score = list(col = "score")). column_annotation = TRUE enables annotations with defaults. FALSE disables all column annotations. Special keys: .default — default values inherited by all entries. params is merged recursively; other keys are inherited only when the entry does not already specify them. .col / .cols / .column / .columns — alias for columns_by (the built-in name annotation). .col.split / .cols.split / .column.split / .columns.split — alias for columns_split_by (the built-in split annotation). .row / .rows — alias for rows_by. .row.split / .rows.split — alias for rows_split_by.
column_annotation_side	Deprecated: use column_annotation with the side sub-key instead.
column_annotation_palette	Deprecated: use column_annotation with the palette sub-key instead.
column_annotation_palcolor	Deprecated: use column_annotation with the palcolor sub-key instead.
column_annotation_type	Deprecated: use column_annotation with the type sub-key instead.
column_annotation_params	Deprecated: use column_annotation with the params sub-key instead.
column_annotation_agg	Deprecated: use column_annotation with the agg sub-key instead.
flip	Logical; if TRUE, swap rows and columns transparently. The caller does not need to swap row- and column-related arguments manually.
alpha	Alpha transparency for heatmap cells in [0, 1].
seed	The random seed to use. Default is 8525.
padding	Padding around the heatmap in CSS order (top, right, bottom, left). Supports 1–4 values. Default 15 (mm). Note that this is different from ComplexHeatmap::draw()'s padding argument which uses bottom-left-top-right order.
base_size	A positive numeric scalar used as a scaling factor for the overall heatmap size. Default 1 (no scaling). Values > 1 enlarge all cell dimensions proportionally.
aspect.ratio	Height-to-width ratio of a single heatmap cell. When NULL (default), sensible per-cell_type defaults are used: 1 for tile/label/dot, 0.5 for bars, and 2 for violin/boxplot/pie. The ratio is constrained by the overall plot dimensions.
draw_opts	A named list of additional arguments passed to draw,HeatmapList-method. Internally managed arguments take precedence.
return_ht	Logical; if TRUE, return the prepared ComplexHeatmap::Heatmap object without drawing. Used internally by LinkedHeatmapAtomic.
layer_fun_callback	A function to add custom graphical layers on top of each heatmap cell. Receives j, i, x, y, w, h, fill, sr, sc. See Heatmap for details.
cell_type	The type of cell to render. One of "tile" (default), "bars", "label", "mark", "label+mark" (or "mark+label"), "dot", "violin", "boxplot", "pie". See the Cell types section for details.
cell_agg	A function to aggregate values within each cell when cell_type = "tile" or "label". Default is mean.
...	Additional arguments passed to Heatmap. When row_names_max_width is passed, a unit is expected but numeric values (default unit "inches") or strings like "5inches" are also accepted. Unmatched arguments produce a warning.

Value

An object of heatmap that is wrapped by patchwork::wrap_plots()

Architecture

1. Annotation resolution — row and column annotation parameters (side, type, palette, params, aggregation) are resolved with alias support (.row, .col, .rows.split, etc.) so that built-in name/split annotations and user-defined annotations can be configured uniformly.

2. Keep-NA / keep-empty handling — keep_na and keep_empty are processed per column to control whether NA values and empty factor levels are preserved in the data before constructing the heatmap matrix.

3. Flip — when flip = TRUE, row and column parameters are swapped transparently so the caller does not need to manually swap every argument.

4. Cell dimension calculation — cell width and height are pre-computed from cell_type, aspect.ratio, base_size, and the unique row/column counts (accounting for split groups). These are passed as explicit "inches" units to ComplexHeatmap::Heatmap() so cells have guaranteed physical sizes.

5. Colour mapping — the main colour scale is built from palette / palcolor with optional quantile-based or explicit cutoff clamping.

6. Cell function dispatch — depending on cell_type, the appropriate cell_fun or layer_fun is installed (tile, bars, label, mark, label+mark, dot, violin, boxplot, pie).

7. Annotation construction — row and column annotations are built via ComplexHeatmap::HeatmapAnnotation() using the resolved type and parameters.

8. Drawing — the heatmap is drawn via ComplexHeatmap::draw() with controlled padding and legend collection. When return_ht = TRUE, the prepared Heatmap object is returned without drawing.

9. Dimension attributes — the returned object carries height / width attributes (in inches) and cell_w / cell_h attributes for downstream layout calculations.

Label / mark dispatch contract

The label and mark functions can take 1, 3, or 5 arguments. The first argument is always the aggregated value for a single cell. With 3 arguments, the second and third are the row and column indices. With 5 arguments, the fourth and fifth are the row and column names. The function should return one of:

• NA — nothing is drawn for this cell.

• A character scalar — used as the label text / mark type; default size and colour are used.

• A named list with fields label/mark, size, color, legend, and order (all optional; smaller order appears first in the legend).

For label cells with custom indices, use ComplexHeatmap::pindex() to translate between data and heatmap coordinates.

Supported mark types

• Primitives: - (h-line), | (v-line), + (cross), / (l-diag), \ (r-diag), x (both diags), o (circle), () (edge-touching circle), <> (diamond).

• With rectangular border: [], [-], [|], [+], [/], [\], [x], [o], [()], [<>].

• With full circle: (-), (|), (+), (/), (\), (x), (o), (<>).

• With diamond: <->, <|>, <+>, </>, <\>, <x>, <o>.

• Octagon: {}, {-}, {|}, {+}, {/}, {\}, {x}, {o}, {()}, {<>}.

• Combinations: e.g. [(|)], [(-)], [(+)], [(/)], [(\], [(x)], [(o)], [(<>)].

Annotations

Row and column annotations are configured via the row_annotation / column_annotation structured list arguments. Built-in name annotations (for rows_by / columns_by) and split annotations (for rows_split_by / columns_split_by) are added automatically and can be configured using the aliases .row / .col and .row.split / .col.split as keys in the annotation list. Setting an alias entry's params to FALSE disables that annotation. .default provides default values inherited by all entries (with recursive merge for params). Ordering within each side: name annotations are closest to the body, split annotations farthest away, user-defined annotations in between.

Note

Removed parameters: rows_palette, rows_palcolor, columns_palette, columns_palcolor, columns_split_palette, columns_split_palcolor, rows_split_palette, rows_split_palcolor — use row_annotation/column_annotation with sub-key palette/palcolor and alias .row / .row.split / .col / .col.split. Also removed: row_name_annotation, row_name_legend, column_name_annotation, column_name_legend — set row_annotation = list(.row = list(params = FALSE)) / column_annotation = list(.col = list(params = FALSE)).

plotthis documentation built on July 9, 2026, 5:07 p.m.