How can we include strings with multiple subscripts from a dataframe variable into ggplot graph axis text?

Question

I have a dataframe where one of the variables "Molecule" is categorical variable whose strings contain multiple subscripts. When I used ggplot2 to plot the Molecule against another variable, the ggplot graph did not print the subscripts as expected.

Code:

`hpc_combine %>% 
 slice(13:23) %>% 
 select(5,4) %>% 
 rename("Molecule" = 1) %>% 
 ggplot(aes(Molecule, Avg_Rel_abund)) +
 geom_col(position = "dodge") + 
 theme(axis.text.x = element_text(face = "bold")) +
 ylim(0, 5) +
 coord_flip()``

Dataframe and plot are attached....

I have tried many approaches solutions, including codes using regular expressions, or the str2expression function, and ggtext, but none of these codes have worked. My hope is that I do not have to manually modify these data point names, as I have many of them. It seems this issue is different than related issues regarding subscripts in x-axis labels in ggplot2 because I am dealing with many strings in dataframe each with multiple subscripts that can't be addressed manually like some of the past solutions to similar problems. Any assistance is welcome!

Does this answer your question? [Subscript letters in ggplot axis label](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17334759/subscript-letters-in-ggplot-axis-label) — Miqueias Brikalski, Feb 21 '23 at 10:25
Thanks, Miqueias. Unfortunately, the above link doesn't quite answer my question. The issue is most similar issues are dealing with axis titles or relatively few axis labels so there is a manual fix. However, my issue is I have hundreds of strings in the molecules column of the dataframe, some with 3 subscripts making the manual methods not feasible. — user14874827, Feb 21 '23 at 16:42

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 23 '23 at 07:04

It looks like I found the answer; the key was in the font choice - Arial and Times could not print the subscripts, but Cambria or Helvetica had no problem - please see below:

`hpc_combine %>% 
 slice(13:23) %>% 
 select(5,4) %>% 
 rename("Molecule" = 1) %>% 
 ggplot(aes(Molecule, Avg_Rel_abund)) +
 geom_col(position = "dodge") + 
 theme(axis.text.x = element_text(face = "bold")) +
 ylim(0, 5) +
 coord_flip() +
 theme(text = element_text(family = "Helvetica")) #This last line solved the issue!

`

How can we include strings with multiple subscripts from a dataframe variable into ggplot graph axis text?

1 Answers1