ggplot is plotting all my data into a single line

Question

I am making a dashboard that plots an x and y input. However when both inputs are passed, ggplot plots my data into a singular line. I have also tried using plotly and I get no result altogether. Would someone be able to help with a working ggplot and plotly example.

here is the ggplot code portion plus image result

renderPlot({
   p <- ggplot(Merged_data_frame_hcat, aes_string(x=input$x, y=input$y)) + geom_point()
 
   print(p)
  
})

and the plotly code plus image

renderPlot({
  p <- plot_ly(data= Merged_data_frame_hcat,x= ~input$x, y= ~input$y,type = 'scatter', mode = 'lines' )
 
   print(p)
  
})

Answer 1

to debug your code, you can print the data you are using in the console using cat, for example:

renderPlot({
   cat('input$x=',input$x,'\n')
   p <- ggplot(Merged_data_frame_hcat, aes_string(x=input$x, y=input$y)) + geom_point()
   print(p)
  
})

If you look at the RStudio console, you'll see the value you're passing to aes_string.
From your answers in the comments, you'll most probably see in the console:

shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

Listening on http://127.0.0.1
input$x = 1

This is due to the way selectInput works :

choices : List of values to select from. If elements of the list are named, then that name --- rather than the value --- is displayed to the user.

This means that if

choices = list('dates'=1)

You see dates in the selectInputand you get 1 in input$x.
For further help, as pointed out by @MrFlick in the first comment, you'll need to provide a simple reproducible example : discovering & solving a problem mainly through comments isn't efficient.