position_sunflower: Arrange over-plotted points in a sunflower pattern

In vayr: Extensions for 'ggplot2' to Visualize as You Randomize

Arrange over-plotted points in a sunflower pattern

Description

This function applies the sunflower algorithm, executed by sunflower(), as a position adjustment, arranging overlapping points at any given x and y into a sunflower pattern. See the sunflower() documentation for more information.

Usage

position_sunflower(density = 1, aspect_ratio = 1)

Arguments

density

The pattern density, which defaults to 1 but will have to be adjusted in most cases. The desirable density will depend on both the ranges of the axes and the dimensions of the image.

aspect_ratio

An aspect ratio adjustment to compensate for distortion of the circular arrangement, which might occur when plotting if coord_equal() is not used. A wide aspect ratio (e.g., 2) would adjust for vertical stretching, whereas a tall aspect ratio (e.g., 0.5) would adjust for horizontal stretching. The default aspect ratio of 1 is appropriate when no adjustment is required. Under coord_fixed(), set aspect_ratio to the same value as that function's ratio argument.

Value

A ggproto object of class PositionSunflower.

See Also

Other Functions: impute_extreme_values(), position_bluenoise(), position_bluenoisedodge(), position_circlepack(), position_circlepackdodge(), position_honeycomb(), position_honeycombdodge(), position_jitter_ellipse(), position_jitterdodge_ellipse(), position_sunflowerdodge(), sunflower()

Examples

  library(ggplot2)

  # Use the sunflower position function to arrange N points
  N <- 100

  dat <- data.frame(
    x = rep(1:4, times = N),
    y = rep(1:4, times = N)
  )

  ggplot(dat, aes(x = x, y = y)) +
    geom_point(size = 1, position = position_sunflower(density = 1, aspect_ratio = 1)) +
    xlim(0, 5) +
    ylim(0, 5) +
    coord_equal()

vayr documentation built on Aug. 22, 2026, 1:08 a.m.