How can I move facet labels to top of my graph?

Question

I can create a faceted plot like so, with 3 plots stacked vertically:

ggplot(iris, aes(Petal.Length)) + stat_bin() + facet_grid(Species ~ .)

Is it possible to move the labels to the top of each graph, like they would be if I'd done horizontal stacking with facet_grid(. ~ Species)?

The reason I want this is that my plots are long time series plots, so I want the full width for each one, but the labels (which essentially function as titles to explain the facets) for each plot are too long to fit in the small label area at the right of the plot.

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 20 '12 at 19:49

14

Yes. Use facet_wrap instead of facet_grid and be sure to also specify the argument ncol=1:

ggplot(iris, aes(Petal.Length)) + stat_bin() + facet_wrap(~Species, ncol=1)

enter image description here

answered Feb 20 '12 at 19:49

Andrie

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The y axis has here a max of 25 each time. Any was to actually have the original behavior of having the axis set to the proper range per facet? – Gildas Mar 06 '19 at 12:23
add `facet_wrap(~Species, ncol=1,scales="free_y")` – baibo Feb 08 '21 at 11:27

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 20 '12 at 19:49

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Try this:

ggplot(iris, aes(Petal.Length)) + stat_bin() + facet_wrap(~Species,nrow = 3)

enter image description here

answered Feb 20 '12 at 19:49

joran

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@Andrie At least we did it a _little_ differently: I set `nrow = 3` while you set `ncol = 1`! – joran Feb 20 '12 at 19:54
Wow didn't know that. Pretty nifty +1 – Tyler Rinker Feb 20 '12 at 20:16
Very nice. I think I prefer `ncol=1` because then I don't have to measure how many rows there are. – Ken Williams Feb 20 '12 at 20:33
It looks like another solution would be using `geom_text()` to add the label, so it doesn't consume plot space. But then I have to figure out how to remove the facet label boxes altogether. – Ken Williams Feb 20 '12 at 20:35
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@KenWilliams `opts(strip.background = theme_blank())` – baptiste Jun 25 '12 at 05:39

How can I move facet labels to top of my graph?

2 Answers2