How to position overlapping bar plot and bar width manually?

Question

I would like to generate 3 overlapping bar plots that looks like the plot below:

but couldn't find an easy way on how to do this.

Here is what I have tried:

d1 <- c(1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 4.8)
d2 <- c(0.15, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 3.3)
d3 <- c(0.16,0.7,0.7,1,2.5)

barplot(d1, # calling data
        ylim = c(0,5), # set y-limit
        width = c(1,1,1,1,1), # change barwidth,
        space = 0.2,
        col = yarrr::transparent("gray", trans.val = 0.9)) # change bar colour and transparency

par(new=T) # allow second chart to overlay the previous chart. Alternatively can use add=TRUE, e.g. barplot(df,add=TRUE)

barplot(d2, ylim=c(0,5), width = c(0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5), 
        space=c(0.4,rep(1.4,4)),
        density = c(5,5), angle=c(45,45), # assign angle and density of lines within bar
        axes=F)

par(new=T)

barplot(d3, ylim=c(0,5), width = c(0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5), 
        space= 10,
        density = c(15,15,15), angle=c(0,0,0), # assign angle and density of lines within bar
        axes=F)

And this is the closest I can achieve:

The first problem I'm facing is that the width of the first bar plot doesn't change even I've assigned different width (width =1) from those in the second (width=0.5) and third plot (width=0.5).

The second problem is that I couldn't find a simple way to position the 2nd and 3rd plot within the 1st plot properly. I want the 2nd and 3rd bar plots side by side within the 1st bar plot and that their total width equals the width of the first bar plot.

Can someone help please? I'm accepting ggplot solution also. Thanks.

jpiversen · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-31T06:08:37.120

How about something like this:

d1 <- c(1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 4.8)
d2 <- c(0.15, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 3.3)
d3 <- c(0.16,0.7,0.7,1,2.5)

df <- data.frame(d1, d2, d3)

library(dplyr)
library(ggplot2)

df %>%
  mutate(index = seq_along(d1)) %>%
  ggplot() +
  geom_col(
    aes(x = index, y = d1),
    width = 0.8,
    col = "black",
    fill = "forestgreen"
  ) +
  geom_col(
    aes(x = index, y = d2),
    width = 0.4,
    col = "black",
    fill = "red",
    position = ggplot2::position_nudge(x = 0.2)
  ) +
  geom_col(
    aes(x = index, y = d3),
    width = 0.4,
    col = "black",
    fill = "blue",
    position = ggplot2::position_nudge(x = -0.2)
  ) +
  labs(y = NULL)

^{Created on 2022-03-30 by the reprex package (v2.0.1)}

Update: patterns instead of colors

This is actually not straightforward with ggplot2 itself. If you're OK with downloading packages outside CRAN then you can download ggpattern and do something like this:

df %>%
  mutate(index = seq_along(d1)) %>%
  ggplot() +
  geom_col(
    aes(x = index, y = d1),
    width = 0.8,
    col = "black",
    fill = "forestgreen"
  ) +
  ggpattern::geom_col_pattern(
    aes(x = index, y = d2),
    width = 0.4,
    color = "black",
    fill = "white",
    pattern = 'stripe',
    pattern_size = 0.1,
    pattern_fill = "black",
    position = ggplot2::position_nudge(x = 0.2)
  ) +
  ggpattern::geom_col_pattern(
    aes(x = index, y = d3),
    width = 0.4,
    color = "black",
    fill = "lightgray",
    pattern = 'crosshatch',
    pattern_fill = "black",
    pattern_angle = 0,
    pattern_size = 0.1,
    position = ggplot2::position_nudge(x = -0.2)
  ) +
  labs(y = NULL)

^{Created on 2022-03-31 by the reprex package (v2.0.1)}

ggpattern is well documented, so you should be able to adjust the above example to your needs.

If you don't want to rely on packages outside CRAN then you can take a look at any of these old questions for possible workarounds:

Thanks @jpiversen. You're the champ. Btw, can you also show how to add different textures, e.g. stripes for bar plot 2 and 3, no fill colour, instead of blue and red? Bar plot 1 can remain forestgreen. And where can I find more info, i.e. documentation on how these work? to learn more? — Catalyst, Mar 30 '22 at 23:56
I don't have any specific sources for the overlapping columns, but I have some general ones. If you're new to ggplot, then [this](https://r4ds.had.co.nz/data-visualisation.html) is a good primer. If you want to know everything there is to know, you can read Hadley's [book on ggplot](https://ggplot2-book.org/). Also the [package documentation](https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/) has many nice articles. And of course, google is your friend. — jpiversen, Mar 31 '22 at 06:11
I've updated my answer with a possible solution to the textures. — jpiversen, Mar 31 '22 at 06:11
Thanks @jpiversen! I've tried ggpattern and did pretty much everything you had except ggpattern::geom_col_pattern. I wrote geom_col_pattern instead lol. Btw, may I ask what's your expertise? — Catalyst, Apr 03 '22 at 00:30

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 30 '22 at 14:25

I see like a back and a front layer of each two bars. To obtain this, the combination of the width and the nudging is crucial, I believe this should do the job:

library(dplyr)
library(ggplot2)


group_var <- 1:5
d1 <- c(1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 4.8)
d2 <- c(0.15, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 3.3)
d3 <- c(0.16,0.7,0.7,1,2.5)
d4 <- c(1.162,0.7,0.7,1,3.5)

df <- data.frame(group_var, d1, d2, d3, d4)

p <- ggplot(df) + 
  geom_col(aes(x = group_var, y = d1), width = 0.4, col = "black", 
           fill = "grey", position = ggplot2::position_nudge(x = 0.2)) +
  geom_col(aes(x = group_var, y = d4), width = 0.4, col = "black", 
           fill = "black", position = ggplot2::position_nudge(x = -0.2)  ) +
  geom_col(aes(x = group_var, y = d2), width = 0.2, col = "black", 
           fill = "red",    position = ggplot2::position_nudge(x = 0.1)) +
  geom_col(aes(x = group_var, y = d3), width = 0.2, col = "black",
           fill = "blue",   position = ggplot2::position_nudge(x = -0.3))
print(p)

How to position overlapping bar plot and bar width manually?

2 Answers2

Update: patterns instead of colors