Plot labels at ends of lines on left-hand side

Question

This question is based on this answer, which provides the solution for the right-hand side.

I need to switch the labels to the opposite side because my curves merge, but they get clipped in spite of the "code to turn off clipping". (Sorry about the padding, this is an unintended consequence of controlling the aspect ratio.)

Here's the code for the chart:

library(ggplot2)
p <- ggplot(temp, aes(x=year, y=value/10^6, group=variable)) + geom_point(shape=1, size=2) + geom_line(size=1) + 
  geom_text(data=temp[temp$year==min(temp$year),], aes(label=c("MSA 2012", "MSA en cours"), x=year-.25, y=value/10^6), 
            hjust = 1, size=4.6) + 
  scale_x_continuous(breaks=seq(2001,2015,2)) + scale_y_continuous(breaks=seq(95,105,5), position="right") + 
  labs(x="Année", y="Emploi (millions)") + 
  theme(panel.grid.major=element_blank(), panel.grid.minor=element_blank(), panel.background=element_blank(), 
        axis.line = element_line(colour = "black"), legend.position="top", legend.direction="horizontal", 
        axis.text = element_text(color="black", size=13), axis.title = element_text(color="black", size=13),
        aspect.ratio=.25)
# Code to turn off clipping
library(grid)
gt <- ggplotGrob(p)
gt$layout$clip[gt$layout$name == "panel"] <- "off"
grid.draw(gt)

Can you use `scale_x_continuous(..., expand=c(0.1,0))` or some similar multiplicative or additive expansion? — r2evans, Sep 01 '17 at 07:52
With a theme like this I would also just expand the plotting region instead of dealing with clipping. Either increase `expand` or use `expand_limits`. — Axeman, Sep 01 '17 at 07:55
Note that your example isn't reproducible for us so you're unlikely to get exact answers. — Axeman, Sep 01 '17 at 08:01
you can also try the `directlabels` package, it is more handy — George Sotiropoulos, Sep 01 '17 at 08:21

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 01 '17 at 09:38

A simple solution is to modify the layout of the gtable associated to the p plot.

# Generate a toy dataset
set.seed(123)
temp = data.frame(year=rep(2001:2015,2), value=cumsum(rnorm(30)), variable=rep(c("A","B"),each=15))
library(scales)
temp$value <- rescale(temp$value, to=c(95*10^6,105*10^6))  


library(ggplot2)
p <- ggplot(temp, aes(x=year, y=value/10^6, group=variable)) + geom_point(shape=1, size=2) + geom_line(size=1) + 
  geom_text(data=temp[temp$year==min(temp$year),], aes(label=c("MSA 2012", "MSA en cours"), x=year-.25, y=value/10^6), 
            hjust = 1, size=4.6) + 
  scale_x_continuous(breaks=seq(2001,2015,2)) + scale_y_continuous(breaks=seq(95,105,5), position="right") + 
  labs(x="Année", y="Emploi (millions)") + 
  theme(panel.grid.major=element_blank(), panel.grid.minor=element_blank(), panel.background=element_blank(), 
        axis.line = element_line(colour = "black"), legend.position="top", legend.direction="horizontal", 
        axis.text = element_text(color="black", size=13), axis.title = element_text(color="black", size=13),
        aspect.ratio=.25)

library(grid)
gt <- ggplotGrob(p)
### Modify the layout of the gtable
gt$widths[[2]] <- unit(2.5, "cm")
###
gt$layout$clip[gt$layout$name == "panel"] <- "off"
grid.draw(gt)

Plot labels at ends of lines on left-hand side

1 Answers1