2D contours of a 3D surface

ggplot2 can not draw true 3D surfaces, but you can use geom_contour(), geom_contour_filled(), and geom_tile() to visualise 3D surfaces in 2D.

These functions require regular data, where the x and y coordinates form an equally spaced grid, and each combination of x and y appears once. Missing values of z are allowed, but contouring will only work for grid points where all four corners are non-missing. If you have irregular data, you'll need to first interpolate on to a grid before visualising, using interp::interp(), akima::bilinear(), or similar.

Usage

geom_contour(
  mapping = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  stat = "contour",
  position = "identity",
  ...,
  bins = NULL,
  binwidth = NULL,
  breaks = NULL,
  lineend = "butt",
  linejoin = "round",
  linemitre = 10,
  na.rm = FALSE,
  show.legend = NA,
  inherit.aes = TRUE
)

geom_contour_filled(
  mapping = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  stat = "contour_filled",
  position = "identity",
  ...,
  bins = NULL,
  binwidth = NULL,
  breaks = NULL,
  na.rm = FALSE,
  show.legend = NA,
  inherit.aes = TRUE
)

stat_contour(
  mapping = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  geom = "contour",
  position = "identity",
  ...,
  bins = NULL,
  binwidth = NULL,
  breaks = NULL,
  na.rm = FALSE,
  show.legend = NA,
  inherit.aes = TRUE
)

stat_contour_filled(
  mapping = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  geom = "contour_filled",
  position = "identity",
  ...,
  bins = NULL,
  binwidth = NULL,
  breaks = NULL,
  na.rm = FALSE,
  show.legend = NA,
  inherit.aes = TRUE
)

Arguments

mapping

Set of aesthetic mappings created by aes(). If specified and inherit.aes = TRUE (the default), it is combined with the default mapping at the top level of the plot. You must supply mapping if there is no plot mapping.

data

The data to be displayed in this layer. There are three options:

If NULL, the default, the data is inherited from the plot data as specified in the call to ggplot().

A data.frame, or other object, will override the plot data. All objects will be fortified to produce a data frame. See fortify() for which variables will be created.

A function will be called with a single argument, the plot data. The return value must be a data.frame, and will be used as the layer data. A function can be created from a formula (e.g. ~ head(.x, 10)).

stat

The statistical transformation to use on the data for this layer. When using a geom_*() function to construct a layer, the stat argument can be used to override the default coupling between geoms and stats. The stat argument accepts the following:

A Stat ggproto subclass, for example StatCount.
A string naming the stat. To give the stat as a string, strip the function name of the stat_ prefix. For example, to use stat_count(), give the stat as "count".
For more information and other ways to specify the stat, see the layer stat documentation.

position

A position adjustment to use on the data for this layer. This can be used in various ways, including to prevent overplotting and improving the display. The position argument accepts the following:

The result of calling a position function, such as position_jitter(). This method allows for passing extra arguments to the position.
A string naming the position adjustment. To give the position as a string, strip the function name of the position_ prefix. For example, to use position_jitter(), give the position as "jitter".
For more information and other ways to specify the position, see the layer position documentation.

...

Other arguments passed on to layer()'s params argument. These arguments broadly fall into one of 4 categories below. Notably, further arguments to the position argument, or aesthetics that are required can not be passed through .... Unknown arguments that are not part of the 4 categories below are ignored.

Static aesthetics that are not mapped to a scale, but are at a fixed value and apply to the layer as a whole. For example, colour = "red" or linewidth = 3. The geom's documentation has an Aesthetics section that lists the available options. The 'required' aesthetics cannot be passed on to the params. Please note that while passing unmapped aesthetics as vectors is technically possible, the order and required length is not guaranteed to be parallel to the input data.
When constructing a layer using a stat_*() function, the ... argument can be used to pass on parameters to the geom part of the layer. An example of this is stat_density(geom = "area", outline.type = "both"). The geom's documentation lists which parameters it can accept.
Inversely, when constructing a layer using a geom_*() function, the ... argument can be used to pass on parameters to the stat part of the layer. An example of this is geom_area(stat = "density", adjust = 0.5). The stat's documentation lists which parameters it can accept.
The key_glyph argument of layer() may also be passed on through .... This can be one of the functions described as key glyphs, to change the display of the layer in the legend.

bins

Number of contour bins. Overridden by breaks.

binwidth

The width of the contour bins. Overridden by bins.

breaks

One of:

Numeric vector to set the contour breaks
A function that takes the range of the data and binwidth as input and returns breaks as output. A function can be created from a formula (e.g. ~ fullseq(.x, .y)).

Overrides binwidth and bins. By default, this is a vector of length ten with pretty() breaks.

lineend

Line end style (round, butt, square).

linejoin

Line join style (round, mitre, bevel).

linemitre

Line mitre limit (number greater than 1).

na.rm

If FALSE, the default, missing values are removed with a warning. If TRUE, missing values are silently removed.

show.legend

logical. Should this layer be included in the legends? NA, the default, includes if any aesthetics are mapped. FALSE never includes, and TRUE always includes. It can also be a named logical vector to finely select the aesthetics to display. To include legend keys for all levels, even when no data exists, use TRUE. If NA, all levels are shown in legend, but unobserved levels are omitted.

inherit.aes

If FALSE, overrides the default aesthetics, rather than combining with them. This is most useful for helper functions that define both data and aesthetics and shouldn't inherit behaviour from the default plot specification, e.g. borders().

geom

The geometric object to use to display the data for this layer. When using a stat_*() function to construct a layer, the geom argument can be used to override the default coupling between stats and geoms. The geom argument accepts the following:

A Geom ggproto subclass, for example GeomPoint.
A string naming the geom. To give the geom as a string, strip the function name of the geom_ prefix. For example, to use geom_point(), give the geom as "point".
For more information and other ways to specify the geom, see the layer geom documentation.

Aesthetics

geom_contour() understands the following aesthetics (required aesthetics are in bold):

x
y
alpha
colour
group
linetype
linewidth
weight

Learn more about setting these aesthetics in vignette("ggplot2-specs").

geom_contour_filled() understands the following aesthetics (required aesthetics are in bold):

x
y
alpha
colour
fill
group
linetype
linewidth
subgroup

Learn more about setting these aesthetics in vignette("ggplot2-specs").

stat_contour() understands the following aesthetics (required aesthetics are in bold):

x
y
z
group
order

Learn more about setting these aesthetics in vignette("ggplot2-specs").

stat_contour_filled() understands the following aesthetics (required aesthetics are in bold):

x
y
z
fill
group
order

Learn more about setting these aesthetics in vignette("ggplot2-specs").

Computed variables

These are calculated by the 'stat' part of layers and can be accessed with delayed evaluation. The computed variables differ somewhat for contour lines (computed by stat_contour()) and contour bands (filled contours, computed by stat_contour_filled()). The variables nlevel and piece are available for both, whereas level_low, level_high, and level_mid are only available for bands. The variable level is a numeric or a factor depending on whether lines or bands are calculated.

after_stat(level)
Height of contour. For contour lines, this is a numeric vector that represents bin boundaries. For contour bands, this is an ordered factor that represents bin ranges.
after_stat(level_low), after_stat(level_high), after_stat(level_mid)
(contour bands only) Lower and upper bin boundaries for each band, as well as the mid point between boundaries.
after_stat(nlevel)
Height of contour, scaled to a maximum of 1.
after_stat(piece)
Contour piece (an integer).

Dropped variables

z: After contouring, the z values of individual data points are no longer available.

Examples

# Basic plot
v <- ggplot(faithfuld, aes(waiting, eruptions, z = density))
v + geom_contour()


# Or compute from raw data
ggplot(faithful, aes(waiting, eruptions)) +
  geom_density_2d()


# \donttest{
# use geom_contour_filled() for filled contours
v + geom_contour_filled()


# Setting bins creates evenly spaced contours in the range of the data
v + geom_contour(bins = 3)

v + geom_contour(bins = 5)


# Setting binwidth does the same thing, parameterised by the distance
# between contours
v + geom_contour(binwidth = 0.01)

v + geom_contour(binwidth = 0.001)


# Other parameters
v + geom_contour(aes(colour = after_stat(level)))

v + geom_contour(colour = "red")

v + geom_raster(aes(fill = density)) +
  geom_contour(colour = "white")

# }

Usage

Arguments

Aesthetics

Computed variables

Dropped variables

See also

Examples