ggplot2 Essentials

Explore the full range of ggplot2 plotting capabilities to create meaningful and spectacular graphs

About This Book

• Discover the capabilities of one of the most sophisticated plotting packages in R
• Create high-quality plots with this powerful and flexible tool
• Accelerate your understanding of ggplot2 with useful and practical examples

Who This Book Is For

This book is perfect for R programmers who are interested in learning to use ggplot2 for data visualization, from the basics up to using more advanced applications, such as faceting and grouping. Since this book will not cover the basics of R commands and objects, you should have a basic understanding of the R language.

What You Will Learn

• Familiarize yourself with some important data visualization packages in R such as graphics, lattice, and ggplot2
• Realize different kinds of simple plots with the basic qplot function
• Understand the basics of the grammar of graphics, the data visualization approach implemented in ggplot2
• Master the ggplot2 package in realizing complex and more advanced graphs
• Personalize the graphical details and learn the aesthetics of plotting graphs
• Save and export your plots in different formats
• Include maps in ggplot graphs, overlay data on maps, and learn how to realize complex matrix scatterplots

In Detail

ggplot2 is one of the most sophisticated and advanced packages of R and its use is constantly growing in the community of R programmers. This book is the perfect starting point for your journey in learning about one of the most refined and widely used plotting tools―ggplot2.

You will start by taking a tour of the most relevant packages available in R to create plots, such as graphics, lattice, and ggplot2. Following this, you will take a deep dive into the concepts of ggplot2 by covering different kinds of plots that will help you gear up for your first hands-on project. After this first taste of the capabilities of ggplot2, you will explore in detail the visualization approach implemented in this package, the so-called grammar of graphics, providing you with the basics to understand the backstage concepts in the plotting functions. Finally, you will take a look at some specialized and sophisticated applications of ggplot2, such as how to realize a complex scatterplot matrix, heatmaps, and how to make spatial visualization graphs.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Graphics in R
Chapter 2: Getting Started
Chapter 3: The Layers and Grammar of Graphics
Chapter 4: Advanced Plotting Techniques
Chapter 5: Controlling Plot Details
Chapter 6: Plot Output
Chapter 7: Special Applications of ggplot2