set date range in ggplot

Question

my data frame is z:

library(ggplot2); library(scales)
z <-     structure(list(Month = structure(c(14975, 15095, 15156, 15187, 
15248), class = "Date"), Value = c(1, 1, 1, 6, 1)), .Names = c("Month", 
"Value"), row.names = c(NA, 5L), class = "data.frame")


ggplot(z, aes(Month, Value)) + 
    geom_bar(fill="orange",size=.3,  stat="identity", position="identity") +
    geom_smooth(data=z,aes(Month,Value,group=1), method="lm", size=2, color="navyblue") + 
    scale_x_date(breaks = "1 month", labels=date_format("%b-%Y"))

This works ok but I really like my data range between 1/1/2011 and 1/1/2013. My example date is from 1/12011 to 10/1/2011. Is there an easy way to force the date range from 1/1/2011 to 1/1/2013 in ggplot?

joran · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-05T17:08:09.750

55

The documentation at ?scale_x_date mentions that it accepts all "typical" continuous scale arguments, including limits:

library(scales)
ggplot(z, aes(Month, Value)) + 
    geom_bar(fill="orange",size=.3,  stat="identity", position="identity") + 
    geom_smooth(data=z,aes(Month,Value,group=1), method="lm", size=2, color="navyblue") + 
    scale_x_date(date_breaks = "1 month", 
                 labels=date_format("%b-%Y"),
                 limits = as.Date(c('2011-01-01','2013-01-01')))

edited Apr 05 '16 at 17:08

answered Jan 04 '13 at 18:43

joran

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Useful answer, but lack of `library(scales)` call generated `Error in structure(list(call = match.call(), aesthetics = aesthetics, : could not find function "date_format"`, which had me scratching my head for a couple of minutes! – SlowLearner Jan 04 '13 at 23:57
@SlowLearner Sorry, the OP's code wouldn't run either without `library(scales)`; it wasn't the `limits` bit that requires it. – joran Jan 05 '13 at 00:01
4

This code does not work for me. Maybe the big update to ggplot2 broke it. `Error: Invalid input: date_trans works with objects of class Date only`. – CoderGuy123 Apr 05 '16 at 16:38
@Deleet I can't reproduce that error. I was getting an error due to an outdated argument name (`breaks` vs `date_breaks`) but it was a different error. The code works fine for me now. – joran Apr 05 '16 at 17:09
1

I found that the solution was to use: `scale_x_datetime(limits = c(d_brexit$Date[which.min(d_brexit$Date)], dmy("23 Jun 2016")))`. I.e., use scale_datetime. Cryptic error message makes it difficult to debug. Here's the context: https://gist.github.com/Deleetdk/880b4b0653361d0b5e6b4c911f5ae2bb – CoderGuy123 Apr 05 '16 at 17:48
1

@Deleet Your comment hints at issues that may have been causing you problems that have nothing to do with the code in this question or in my answer (which all work fine, now). You appear to be using lubridate functions, which may return objects that do inherit from class Date. Which might explain your error message. – joran Apr 05 '16 at 17:51
2

@Deleet Yes, looking at your gist, the error message was not cryptic at all. Your Date column was not actually a Date column. It was POSIXct. And `date_trans` dutifully informed you that it worked only on columns of class `Date`. – joran Apr 05 '16 at 17:59

IRTFM · Answer 2 · 2017-07-26T21:46:50.390

13

It would be a courtesy to SO users to note that you have in addition to 'ggplot2' also loaded the scales package. There is an ggplot2::xlim function, so this works:

  ...... + xlim(as.Date(c('1/1/2011', '1/1/2013'), format="%d/%m/%Y") )

Update: Just got a downvote for an unexplained reason. The code in the original question no longer works, but if you replace the scale_x_date(.) call with just the xlim() call above there is no error.

ggplot(z, aes(Month, Value)) + 
     geom_bar(fill="orange",size=.3,  stat="identity", position="identity") +
     geom_smooth(data=z,aes(Month,Value,group=1), method="lm", size=2, color="navyblue") + 
     xlim(as.Date(c('1/1/2011', '1/1/2013'), format="%d/%m/%Y") )

edited Jul 26 '17 at 21:46

answered Jan 04 '13 at 18:45

IRTFM

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This code does not work for me. Maybe the big update to ggplot2 broke it. `Error: Invalid input: date_trans works with objects of class Date only`. – CoderGuy123 Apr 05 '16 at 16:39
1

The code still works in 3.4.1 so the comment from last year makes no sense. I was clearly give a Date-classed value to `xlim`. Probably failure to recognize a factor variable that looked like a "Date" in the printed output. – IRTFM Jul 26 '17 at 21:48
This technically works for me, but if I put it after `scale_x_date()` it breaks whatever settings I gave to `scale_x_date()`. If I put it before, `scale_x_date()` breaks the settings I put in `xlim()`. Using ggplot version 3.3.2. – GMSL Aug 26 '20 at 13:43
@GMSL I think asking a question about a seven year-old answer that has already been modified once to keep track of package modifications is expecting too much from the SO comment mechanism. You should write up a new question. – IRTFM Aug 26 '20 at 15:57

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 12 '18 at 19:30

Here's a solution using ggplot 3.1 which requires the least tweaks to the original code:

ggplot(z, aes(Month, Value)) + 
    geom_bar(fill="orange",size=.3, stat="identity", position="identity") +
    geom_smooth(data=z,aes(Month,Value,group=1), method="lm", size=2, color="navyblue") + 
    scale_x_date(date_breaks = "1 month", 
           limits = as.Date(c('1/1/2011', '1/1/2013'), format="%d/%m/%Y"),
           date_labels="%b-%Y" ) +
    theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 90))

the theme() at the end is optional, but makes the formatting easier to read if you want to use your original "%b-%Y" formatting string.

set date range in ggplot

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