Connect observations

geom_path() connects the observations in the order in which they appear in the data. geom_line() connects them in order of the variable on the x axis. geom_step() creates a stairstep plot, highlighting exactly when changes occur. The group aesthetic determines which cases are connected together.

Usage

geom_path(
  mapping = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  stat = "identity",
  position = "identity",
  ...,
  lineend = "butt",
  linejoin = "round",
  linemitre = 10,
  arrow = NULL,
  arrow.fill = NULL,
  na.rm = FALSE,
  show.legend = NA,
  inherit.aes = TRUE
)

geom_line(
  mapping = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  stat = "identity",
  position = "identity",
  na.rm = FALSE,
  orientation = NA,
  show.legend = NA,
  inherit.aes = TRUE,
  ...
)

geom_step(
  mapping = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  stat = "identity",
  position = "identity",
  direction = "hv",
  na.rm = FALSE,
  orientation = NA,
  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.

lineend

Line end style (round, butt, square).

linejoin

Line join style (round, mitre, bevel).

linemitre

Line mitre limit (number greater than 1).

arrow

Arrow specification, as created by grid::arrow().

arrow.fill

fill colour to use for the arrow head (if closed). NULL means use colour aesthetic.

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().

orientation

The orientation of the layer. The default (NA) automatically determines the orientation from the aesthetic mapping. In the rare event that this fails it can be given explicitly by setting orientation to either "x" or "y". See the Orientation section for more detail.

direction

direction of stairs: 'vh' for vertical then horizontal, 'hv' for horizontal then vertical, or 'mid' for step half-way between adjacent x-values.

Details

An alternative parameterisation is geom_segment(), where each line corresponds to a single case which provides the start and end coordinates.

Orientation

This geom treats each axis differently and, thus, can thus have two orientations. Often the orientation is easy to deduce from a combination of the given mappings and the types of positional scales in use. Thus, ggplot2 will by default try to guess which orientation the layer should have. Under rare circumstances, the orientation is ambiguous and guessing may fail. In that case the orientation can be specified directly using the orientation parameter, which can be either "x" or "y". The value gives the axis that the geom should run along, "x" being the default orientation you would expect for the geom.

Aesthetics

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

x
y
alpha
colour
group
linetype
linewidth

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

Missing value handling

geom_path(), geom_line(), and geom_step() handle NA as follows:

If an NA occurs in the middle of a line, it breaks the line. No warning is shown, regardless of whether na.rm is TRUE or FALSE.
If an NA occurs at the start or the end of the line and na.rm is FALSE (default), the NA is removed with a warning.
If an NA occurs at the start or the end of the line and na.rm is TRUE, the NA is removed silently, without warning.

Examples

# geom_line() is suitable for time series
ggplot(economics, aes(date, unemploy)) + geom_line()

# separate by colour and use "timeseries" legend key glyph
ggplot(economics_long, aes(date, value01, colour = variable)) +
  geom_line(key_glyph = "timeseries")


# You can get a timeseries that run vertically by setting the orientation
ggplot(economics, aes(unemploy, date)) + geom_line(orientation = "y")


# geom_step() is useful when you want to highlight exactly when
# the y value changes
recent <- economics[economics$date > as.Date("2013-01-01"), ]
ggplot(recent, aes(date, unemploy)) + geom_line()

ggplot(recent, aes(date, unemploy)) + geom_step()


# geom_path lets you explore how two variables are related over time,
# e.g. unemployment and personal savings rate
m <- ggplot(economics, aes(unemploy/pop, psavert))
m + geom_path()

m + geom_path(aes(colour = as.numeric(date)))


# Changing parameters ----------------------------------------------
ggplot(economics, aes(date, unemploy)) +
  geom_line(colour = "red")


# Use the arrow parameter to add an arrow to the line
# See ?arrow for more details
c <- ggplot(economics, aes(x = date, y = pop))
c + geom_line(arrow = arrow())

c + geom_line(
  arrow = arrow(angle = 15, ends = "both", type = "closed")
)


# Control line join parameters
df <- data.frame(x = 1:3, y = c(4, 1, 9))
base <- ggplot(df, aes(x, y))
base + geom_path(linewidth = 10)

base + geom_path(linewidth = 10, lineend = "round")

base + geom_path(linewidth = 10, linejoin = "mitre", lineend = "butt")


# You can use NAs to break the line.
df <- data.frame(x = 1:5, y = c(1, 2, NA, 4, 5))
ggplot(df, aes(x, y)) + geom_point() + geom_line()
#> Warning: Removed 1 row containing missing values or values outside the scale range
#> (`geom_point()`).


# \donttest{
# Setting line type vs colour/size
# Line type needs to be applied to a line as a whole, so it can
# not be used with colour or size that vary across a line
x <- seq(0.01, .99, length.out = 100)
df <- data.frame(
  x = rep(x, 2),
  y = c(qlogis(x), 2 * qlogis(x)),
  group = rep(c("a","b"),
  each = 100)
)
p <- ggplot(df, aes(x=x, y=y, group=group))
# These work
p + geom_line(linetype = 2)

p + geom_line(aes(colour = group), linetype = 2)

p + geom_line(aes(colour = x))

# But this doesn't
should_stop(p + geom_line(aes(colour = x), linetype=2))
# }