How to align geom_text labels above dodged geom_col

Question

I can't seem to find a way to get the text labels on this (dodged) geom_col to line up according to their respective columns.

I have tried numerous suggestions solutions on SO and other sites, and this is the closest I could get:

How do I fix this?

Code:

ggplot(leads[leads$key_as_string <= max(leads$key_as_string) - 1, ], aes(fill = type)) +
  geom_col(aes(x = key_as_string, y = doc_count),
           colour = "black",
           position = position_dodge(1)) +
  scale_y_continuous(limits = c(0, max(leads$doc_count))) +
  geom_text(aes(x = key_as_string, y = doc_count, label = doc_count, group = key_as_string),
            hjust = 0.5,
            vjust = -0.5,
            size = 3,
            colour = "black",
            position = position_dodge(1)) +
  theme(panel.grid.minor.x = element_blank(),
        panel.grid.major.x = element_blank(),
        axis.text = element_text(colour = "black"))

Try removing `group = key_as_string` from `geom_text(aes())`? — Z.Lin, Jun 07 '18 at 13:38
That's it! I think I added that as per one of the suggestions I'd read somewhere. Add it as an answer and I will accept. — Mus, Jun 07 '18 at 13:39

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 07 '18 at 13:50

As per my comment, group = key_as_string is the culprit here. The code is essentially telling ggplot to keep both labels with the same key_as_string value in the same group, negating the dodge command.

Illustration with the diamonds dataset below. We can see that removing the group aesthetic mapping changes the labels' positions:

p <- ggplot(diamonds %>%
              filter(cut %in% c("Fair", "Good")) %>%
              group_by(cut, clarity) %>%
              summarise(carat = mean(carat)), 
            aes(clarity, carat, fill = cut, label = round(carat, 2))) + 
  geom_col(position = position_dodge(1))

gridExtra::grid.arrange(
  p + geom_text(position = position_dodge(1), aes(group = clarity)),
  p + geom_text(position = position_dodge(1)),
  ncol = 1
)

How to align geom_text labels above dodged geom_col

1 Answers1