1

How can geom_text_repel() labels be made to span multiple facet_grid() panes? For instance, if there are many long labels that do not fit within the proper dimensions of each grid plot, the label should be positioned as if the facet_grid() were a single plot.

For example:

df <- data.frame(
  x = rep(1:3, 5), 
  y = runif(15), 
  label = paste0("very long label ", 1:15), 
  group = do.call(c, lapply(paste0("group ", 1:5), function(x) rep(x, 3)))
)

library(ggplot2)
library(ggrepel)
ggplot(df, aes(x, y, label = label)) + 
  geom_point() + 
  facet_grid(cols = vars(group)) + 
  geom_text_repel()

Example of how to not label across facet grids

If there is another way to group samples on the x-axis that would mimic a column-wise facet-grid, that's perfectly fine too. In my case, I need to group samples by a grouping variable (correspondingly labeled), and then within each group order them by a continuous variable.

zdebruine
  • 3,687
  • 6
  • 31
  • 50

1 Answers1

3

Use clip = "off" from coord_cartesian:

library(ggplot2)
library(ggrepel)
ggplot(df, aes(x, y, label = label)) + 
  geom_point() + 
  facet_grid(cols = vars(group)) + 
  geom_text_repel() + 
  coord_cartesian(clip = "off")

enter image description here

If this is not enough, one other option is to use multilining with stringr::str_wrap:

library(stringr)
library(dplyr)
df %>% 
  mutate(label_wrapped = str_wrap(label, width = 20)) %>%
  ggplot(aes(x, y, label = label_wrapped)) + 
  geom_point() + 
  facet_grid(cols = vars(group)) + 
  geom_text_repel() + 
  coord_cartesian(clip = 'off')

enter image description here

data

set.seed(2)
df <- data.frame(
  x = rep(1:3, 5), 
  y = runif(15), 
  label = paste0("very very very long label ", 1:15),
  group = do.call(c, lapply(paste0("group ", 1:5), function(x) rep(x, 3)))
)
Maël
  • 45,206
  • 3
  • 29
  • 67
  • Any way to keep labels from extending to the left of `group 1` and to the right of `group 5` (off the coordinates of the combined plot)? – zdebruine Feb 17 '22 at 14:08
  • Yes, use `stringr::str_wrap`. See edited answer. – Maël Feb 17 '22 at 14:22
  • 1
    thanks, this works if the facets are wide enough to contain the label if using `str_wrap`. Unfortunately, for my case the facets are too narrow for that. I found that because my x-axis positions were a simple ordering of points within each group that could use `position_dodge2()` to achieve what I was after without any use of `facet_grid`. – zdebruine Feb 17 '22 at 14:33