R multiple y axis interactive plot

Question

I am trying to create a plot in R similar to this:

with up to 6 variables and it has to be reactive.

I tried plotly, however in plotly I would get axis ticks on the plot, and it gets messy, and I managed to get only one y axis out.

Is there a way to recreate the plot in plotly or any other interactive library?

My plotly code:

library(dplyr)
library(plotly)
library(tidyr)

data <- cbind(
  seq(from = 1, to = 30, by = 1),
  sample(seq(from = 100, to = 300, by = 10), size = 30, replace = TRUE),
  sample(seq(from = 1, to = 100, by = 9), size = 30, replace = TRUE),
  sample(seq(from = 50, to = 60, by = 2), size = 30, replace = TRUE),
  sample(seq(from = 100, to = 130, by = 1), size = 30, replace = TRUE)
) %>% 
  as.data.frame()

names(data) <- c("date", "a", "b", "x", "y")

plot_ly(x = ~data$date) %>%
  add_lines(y = ~data[, 2], name = "a", line = list(color = "red")) %>%
  add_lines(y = ~data[, 3], name = "b", line = list(color = "blue"), yaxis = "y2") %>%
  add_lines(y = ~data[, 4], name = "x", line = list(color = "green"), yaxis = "y3") %>%
  add_lines(y = ~data[, 5], name = "y", line = list(color = "pink"), yaxis = "y4") %>%
  layout(
    yaxis = list(
      side = "left",
      title = list("")
    ),
    yaxis2 = list(
      side = "left",
      overlaying = "y",
      anchor = "free"
    ),
    yaxis3 = list(
      side = "left",
      overlaying = "y",
      anchor = "free",
      position = 0.04
    ),
    yaxis4 = list(
      side = "left",
      overlaying = "y",
      anchor = "free",
      position = 0.08
    ),
    margin = list(pad = 30)
  )

Marco Sandri · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-27T07:10:24.953

With the highcharter package one can generate nice time series plots with multiple y-axes:

library(highcharter)

set.seed(1)
n <- 100
x1 <- cumsum(rnorm(n))
x2 <- cumsum(runif(n)-0.5)+10
x3 <- cumsum(rnorm(n,0,20))+100
x4 <- cumsum(rnorm(n,0,20))+1000

highchart() %>% 
  hc_add_series(data = x1) %>% 
  hc_add_series(data = x2, yAxis = 1) %>% 
  hc_add_series(data = x3, yAxis = 2) %>%
  hc_add_series(data = x4, yAxis = 3) %>%
   hc_yAxis_multiples(
     list(lineWidth = 3, lineColor='#7cb5ec', title=list(text="First y-axis")),
     list(lineWidth = 3, lineColor="#434348", title=list(text="Second y-axis")),
     list(lineWidth = 3, lineColor="#90ed7d", title=list(text="Third y-axis")),
     list(lineWidth = 3, lineColor="#f7a35c", title=list(text="Fourth y-axis"))
   )

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 22 '17 at 11:44

I just tweaked your code. Hope this helps!

plot_ly(x = ~data$date) %>%
  add_lines(y = ~data[, 2], name = "a", line = list(color = "red")) %>%
  add_lines(y = ~data[, 3], name = "b", line = list(color = "blue"), yaxis = "y2") %>%
  add_lines(y = ~data[, 4], name = "x", line = list(color = "green"), yaxis = "y3") %>%
  add_lines(y = ~data[, 5], name = "y", line = list(color = "pink"), yaxis = "y4") %>%
  layout(
    yaxis = list(
      side = "left",
      color="red", 
      title = ""
    ),
    yaxis2 = list(
      overlaying = "y",
      anchor = "free",
      color="blue", 
      title= ""
    ),
    yaxis3 = list(
      side = "right",
      overlaying = "y",
      color="green", 
      title= ""
    ),
    yaxis4 = list(
      side = "right",
      overlaying = "y",
      anchor = "free",
      position = 1,
      color="pink",
      title= ""
    ),
    xaxis = list(
      title = ""
    ),
    margin = list(pad = 25)
  )

Thanks, but the issue is when I have more than 4 variables it will not work, and I need to have up to 6 — Galina Polishchuk, Aug 22 '17 at 12:32

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 09 '20 at 13:30

To add to and modify @Prem's answer, you can avoid overlap of the y-axes with the graph itself by tweaking the x-axis portion of the plot with the domain parameter of the x-axis.

plot_ly(data, x = ~time, type = 'scatter', mode = 'lines') %>%
    add_lines(y = ~y1, name='y1', line = list(color = "red")) %>%
    add_lines(y = ~y2, name='y2', yaxis='y2', line = list(color = "orange")) %>%
    add_lines(y = ~y3, name='y3', yaxis='y3', line = list(color = "darkgreen")) %>%
    add_lines(y = ~y4, name='y4', yaxis='y4', line = list(color = "purple")) %>%
    add_lines(y = ~y5, name='y5', yaxis='y5', line = list(color = "brown")) %>%
    layout(
       xaxis = list(title = "time", domain = c(0.5,1)),
       yaxis = list(title = 'Y-axis 1', side = "left", color = "red", position = 0,
               anchor = 'free'),
       yaxis2 = list(title = 'Y-axis 2', side = "left", color = "orange", 
                overlaying = "y", anchor = 'free', position = 0.1),
       yaxis3 = list(title = 'Y-axis 3', side = "left", 
                overlaying = "y", anchor = 'free', color = "darkgreen", position = 0.2),
       yaxis4 = list(title = 'Y-axis 4', side = "left", 
                overlaying = "y", anchor = 'free', color = "purple", position = 0.3),
       yaxis5 = list(title = 'Y-axis 5',side = "left", 
                overlaying = "y", anchor = 'free', color = "brown", position = 0.4),
       showlegend = T
)

The position of the single y-axes with respect to the plot size in percent can be set with the position parameter. In the above example, each y-axis gets 10% of the total plot size while the graph is reserved for the right half.

R multiple y axis interactive plot

3 Answers3

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