Plotly: dual y axis graph messing up line graph

Question

I'm trying to make a dual axis plot of rainfall and temperature. I have ordered the months on the bottom, but that causes my line graph to screw up. How do I make sure the added line uses the same x axis?

temprain<-data.frame(month = c(1:12), 
   Train = c(250,220, 180,97,38,27,31,47,70,140,200,250), 
   Tair = c(17,16, 15,13,9,6,5,9,12,13,14,16))
tempseq<-seq(0,20,by=0.5)
rainseq<-seq(0,260,by=1)

xlab<-list(type = "category",
           categoryorder = "array",
           categoryarray = month.name,
           showgrid = TRUE,
           showline = TRUE,
           autorange = TRUE,
           showticklabels = TRUE,
           ticks = "outside",
           tickangle = 0
)

plot_ly(temprain) %>%
  add_bars(x = ~MonthName, y = ~Train, type = "bar", name = "Rain") %>%
  add_lines(x = ~MonthName, y = ~Tair, yaxis = "y2", name = "Temp") %>% 
  layout(xaxis = xlab,
    yaxis = list(showline = TRUE, side = "left", 
                 title = "Rainfall (mm)Temp", range = tempseq), 
    yaxis2 = list(showline = TRUE, side = "right", 
                  overlaying = "y",  title = "Air Temp (C)", range = rainseq), 
    showlegend = FALSE,  
    margin = list(pad = 0, b = 50, l = 50, r = 50))

I tried this as well, and it doesn't work, the temp graph disappears

plot_ly(temprain, x = ~MonthName, y = ~Tair, name = "Temp") %>%
  add_bars(x = ~MonthName, y = ~Train, yaxis = "y2", type = "bar", name = "Rain") %>%
  layout(xaxis = xlab,
    yaxis = list(showline = TRUE, side = "left", 
                 title = "Air Temp (C)", range = tempseq),  
    yaxis2 = list(showline = TRUE, side = "right", 
                  overlaying = "y",
                 title = "Rainfall (mm)", range = rainseq), 
    showlegend = FALSE,  
    margin = list(pad = 0, b = 50, l = 50, r = 50))

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 26 '21 at 13:01

Below is the solution:

Your data:

temprain<-data.frame(month = c(1:12), 
                     Train = c(250,220, 180,97,38,27,31,47,70,140,200,250), 
                     Tair = c(17,16, 15,13,9,6,5,9,12,13,14,16))

Generate a column for month abbreviations from month:

mymonths <- c("Jan","Feb","Mar",
              "Apr","May","Jun",
              "Jul","Aug","Sep",
              "Oct","Nov","Dec")

# match the month numbers against abbreviations:
temprain$MonthAbb = mymonths[ temprain$month ]

# This is the code to archieving a consistent combined graph:
temprain$MonthAbb <- factor(temprain$MonthAbb, levels = c(as.character(temprain$MonthAbb)))

Now plot your data:


fig <- plot_ly(temprain)
# Add the Train trace:
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(x = ~MonthAbb, y = ~Train, name = "Train", type = "bar")

ay <- list(
  tickfont = list(color = "red"),
  overlaying = "y",
  side = "right",
  title = "<b>Tair</b>")

# Add the Tair trace:
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(x = ~MonthAbb, y = ~Tair, name = "Tair", yaxis = "y2", mode = "lines+markers", type = "scatter")

fig <- fig %>% layout(yaxis2 = ay,
  xaxis = list(title="Month"),
  yaxis = list(title="<b>Train</b>"))%>%
  layout(xaxis = list(
           zerolinecolor = '#ffff',
           zerolinewidth = 2,
           gridcolor = 'ffff'),
         yaxis = list(
           zerolinecolor = '#ffff',
           zerolinewidth = 2,
           gridcolor = 'ffff')
  )

fig

Output:

For more techniques view [Ordering in r plotly barchart](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40149556/ordering-in-r-plotly-barchart) — Musebe Ivan, Sep 26 '21 at 13:04
thank you for this solution. I was missing setting the month names to a factor. I saw the solution you linked to above and that was where I got the code to set the xaxis as a list. But it seems I overlooked the importance of changing from a character to a factor. My original code for making the graph works fine once I set month names to a factor and check with str(temprain) — Kyle Finn, Sep 27 '21 at 06:22

Plotly: dual y axis graph messing up line graph

1 Answers1