How do I pass multiple arguments through an R function to ggplot, both aesthetics and scale format? - r

Question

How do I pass multiple arguments through to my ggplot function?
Here is an example of the plot I want to automate.
library(ggplot2)
library(scales)
p <- ggplot(diamonds, aes(x=cut, y=price) ) +
geom_boxplot() +
scale_y_continuous(labels = dollar)
p
But I want to graph multiple different variables and use the appropriate scale e.g. price, depth etc, some are in dollars.
So I made a function
myfunction <- function(var1,var2){
p <- ggplot(diamonds, aes(x=cut, y= var1) ) +
geom_boxplot() +
scale_y_continuous(labels = var2)
p
return(p)
}
When I test the function, it doesn't work. Both arguments cause different errors on their own.
myfunction("price","dollar")
For var1 I get:
Error: Discrete value supplied to continuous scale
and var2:
Error in f(..., self = self) : Breaks and labels are different lengths
Question 1. Why doesn't that work? This is the most important question for me.
I then wish to make multiple graphs, which I can do with a for loop, but I keep hearing I should do it with apply. Here's what I tried.
Question 2. How would you make the multiple graphs work with apply?
FirstPlotData <- c("price","dollar")
SecondPlotData <- c("depth", "comma")
plotMetaData <- data.frame(FirstPlotData,SecondPlotData)
lapply doesn't work for me with multiple arguments. Can it pass multiple arguments?
lapply(plotMetaData, function(avar,bvar)myfunction(avar, bvar))
Would mapply work? How?
mapply(mytestfunction,plotMetaData[1,],plotMetaDataList[2,])
Thanks in advance. I note that I could do the multiple graphs with facet, but for my more complex example, with hiding outliers, scaling, and also doing stats, then doing the multiple plots and putting in a {cowplot} grid seems easier.

Answer 1

Try this
library(ggplot2)
library(scales)
library(rlang) # for sym
myfunction <- function(var1,var2){
p <- ggplot(diamonds, aes(x=cut, y= !! sym(var1)) ) +
geom_boxplot() +
scale_y_continuous(labels = get(var2))
p
return(p)
}
myfunction('price','dollar')

Answer 2

You probably want aes_string. This function has been designed to make programming with ggplot easier (similar ideas have also been applied to dplyr commands). The following works:
library(tidyverse)
data(diamonds)
myfunction <- function(var1){
p <- ggplot(diamonds, aes_string(x="cut", y= var1) ) +
geom_boxplot()
p
return(p)
}
myfunction("price")
Why?
contrast the following:
# works
ggplot(diamonds, aes(x=cut, y= price) ) + geom_boxplot()
# these 2 are equivalent, but do not work
ggplot(diamonds, aes(x=cut, y= "price") ) + geom_boxplot()
var1 = "price"
ggplot(diamonds, aes(x=cut, y= var1) ) + geom_boxplot()
# these 2 are equivalent, both works but inputs are strings
ggplot(diamonds, aes_string(x="cut", y= "price") ) + geom_boxplot()
var1 = "price"
ggplot(diamonds, aes_string(x="cut", y= var1) ) + geom_boxplot()
Using apply?
For this purpose I would be inclined to use loops (others are welcome to disagree). If you are set on using an apply approach then you probably want apply as lapply, mapply, vapply and sapply are list-, multivariate-, vector- and simple-apply respectively.

Answer 3

A more ggplot way of doing this now, is using .data pronoun.
library(ggplot2)
myfunction <- function(var1, var2) {
p <- ggplot(diamonds, aes(x = cut, y = .data[[var1]])) +
geom_boxplot() +
scale_y_continuous(
labels = getFromNamespace(x = var2, ns = "scales")
)
p
return(p)
}
myfunction("price", "dollar")
myfunction("price", "comma")
Then to create multiple plots with these function by passing multiple arguments, a better and tidier approach is using map functions from the {purrr}
plots <- purrr::map2(
.x = c("price", "price"),
.y = c("dollar", "comma"),
.f = myfunction
)
So, plots[[1]] contains the 1st plot with var1 = "price" and var2 = "dollar" and plots[[2]] contains the 2nd plot with var1 = "price" and var2 = "comma".