ggplot2::geom_jitter()
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Description

The geom_jitter() function is part of the {ggplot2} package, which is part of the {tidyverse}.

The geom_jitter() function is used within {ggplot2} plots to create strip plots, also know as jitter plots. (Note that geom_jitter() is technically a shortcut for geom_point(position = position_jitter()).)

Required aesthetics:

  • x: The x-axis coordinate(s) for the points (pre-jittering)
  • y: The y-axis coordinate(s) for the points (pre-jittering)

Commonly used optional aesthetics:

  • color (colour): The point color
  • fill: The point fill, when the shape is specified to allow a fill
  • size: The point size
  • shape: The point shape
  • stroke: The point outline size, when the shape is specified to allow a fill
  • alpha: Point transparency, ranging from 0-1 where 0 is fully transparent and 1 is fully opaque.
  • width: The separation between jitter distributions. It is good practice to always find an appropriate width for your data!

Options for point shapes in R

The default point shape used for plotting is 20.

To use this function, you need to either first load the {ggplot2} library, or always use the function with ggplot2::geom_jitter() notation.

# Load the library
library(ggplot2)
# Or, load the full tidyverse:
library(tidyverse)

# Or, use :: notation
ggplot2::geom_jitter()

Examples

The examples below use the msleep dataset. Learn more about this dataset with get_help("msleep").

# Show the msleep dataset with head()
head(msleep)
## # A tibble: 6 × 11
##   name  genus vore  order conservation sleep_total sleep_rem sleep_cycle awake  brainwt  bodywt
##   <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>              <dbl>     <dbl>       <dbl> <dbl>    <dbl>   <dbl>
## 1 Owl … Aotus omni  Prim… <NA>                17         1.8      NA       7    0.0155    0.48 
## 2 Moun… Aplo… herbi Rode… nt                  14.4       2.4      NA       9.6 NA         1.35 
## 3 Grea… Blar… omni  Sori… lc                  14.9       2.3       0.133   9.1  0.00029   0.019
## 4 Cow   Bos   herbi Arti… domesticated         4         0.7       0.667  20    0.423   600    
## 5 Thre… Brad… herbi Pilo… <NA>                14.4       2.2       0.767   9.6 NA         3.85 
## 6 Nort… Call… carni Carn… vu                   8.7       1.4       0.383  15.3 NA        20.5


# Jitter plot of awake against vore, colored by vore for clarity
# Note to remove NAs, you must manipulate the data first
ggplot(msleep) + 
  aes(x = vore, y = awake, color = vore) + 
  geom_jitter()


# Modify the spacing along the x-axis with the width argument
# Note to remove NAs, you must manipulate the data first
ggplot(msleep) + 
  aes(x = vore, y = awake, color = vore) + 
  geom_jitter(width = 0.1)


# Examples of further point modifications, shown comprehensively
# Note to remove NAs, you must manipulate the data first
ggplot(msleep) + 
  aes(x = vore, y = awake) + 
  geom_jitter(width = 0.15,
              shape = 22,
              size = 4,
              stroke = 2, # point outline width
              color = "orange",
              fill = "blue",
              alpha = 0.5)


# To make a single jitter plot containing all values, use aes(x = "")
ggplot(msleep) + 
  aes(x = "", y = awake) + 
  geom_jitter(width = 0.2)