Bar Charts
This lesson is called Bar Charts, part of the R in 3 Months (Spring 2025) course. This lesson is called Bar Charts, part of the R in 3 Months (Spring 2025) course.
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# Load Packages -----------------------------------------------------------
library(tidyverse)
# Import Data -------------------------------------------------------------
penguins <- read_csv("penguins.csv")
# Bar Charts --------------------------------------------------------------
# There are two basic approaches to making bar charts,
# both of which use geom_bar().
# Approach #1
# Use your full dataset.
# Only assign a variable to the x axis.
# Let ggplot use the default stat transformation (stat = "count")
# to generate counts that it then plots on the y axis.
ggplot(data = penguins,
mapping = aes(x = bill_length_mm)) +
geom_bar()
# The default statistical transformation for geom_bar() is count.
# This will give us the same result as our previous plot.
ggplot(data = penguins,
mapping = aes(x = bill_length_mm)) +
geom_bar(stat = "count")
# Approach #2
# Wrangle your data frame before plotting, creating a new data frame
# in the process
# Assign variables to the x and y axes
# Use stat = "identity" to tell ggplot to use the data exactly as it is
# It's often easier to do our analysis work, save a data frame,
# and then use this to plot.
# Let's recreate our penguin_bill_length_by_island data frame.
penguin_bill_length_by_island <- penguins |>
group_by(island) |>
summarize(mean_bill_length = mean(bill_length_mm, na.rm = TRUE)) |>
arrange(mean_bill_length)
# Then let's use this data frame to make a bar chart.
# The stat = "identity" here tells ggplot to use the exact data points
# without any statistical transformations.
ggplot(data = penguin_bill_length_by_island,
mapping = aes(x = island,
y = mean_bill_length)) +
geom_bar(stat = "identity")
# We can also flip the x and y axes.
ggplot(data = penguin_bill_length_by_island,
mapping = aes(x = mean_bill_length,
y = island)) +
geom_bar(stat = "identity")
# The function coord_flip() will do the same thing.
ggplot(data = penguin_bill_length_by_island,
mapping = aes(x = island,
y = mean_bill_length)) +
geom_bar(stat = "identity") +
coord_flip()
# We can also use geom_col(), which is the same as geom_bar(stat = "identity")
ggplot(data = penguin_bill_length_by_island,
mapping = aes(x = island,
y = mean_bill_length)) +
geom_col()
Your Turn
# Load Packages -----------------------------------------------------------
library(tidyverse)
# Import Data -------------------------------------------------------------
penguins <- read_csv("penguins.csv")
# Bar Charts --------------------------------------------------------------
# Use the v1 approach to make a bar chart that shows a count of the number of penguins by species.
# YOUR CODE HERE
# Use the v2 approach by doing the following:
# 1. Creating a new data frame called penguins_by_species that is a
# count of the number of penguins by species
# 2. Plot your data frame using the v2 approach with geom_bar()
# YOUR CODE HERE
# Make the same graph as above, but use geom_col() instead of geom_bar()
# YOUR CODE HERE
Learn More
You can also find examples of code to make bar charts on the Data to Viz website , the R Graph Gallery website , and in Chapter 3 of the R Graphics Cookbook. Michael Toth also has a detailed blog post about making bar charts with ggplot.
Have any questions? Put them below and we will help you out!
Course Content
127 Lessons
1
Welcome to Getting Started with R
00:57
2
Install R
02:05
3
Install RStudio
02:14
4
Files in R
04:33
5
Projects
07:54
6
Packages
02:38
7
Import Data
05:24
8
Objects and Functions
03:16
9
Examine our Data
12:50
10
Import Our Data Again
07:11
11
Getting Help
07:46
12
Week 1 Live Session (Spring 2025)
1:03:11
1
Welcome to Fundamentals of R
01:36
2
Update Everything
02:45
3
Start a New Project
02:16
4
The Tidyverse
03:34
5
Pipes
04:15
6
select()
07:25
7
mutate()
04:25
8
filter()
10:05
9
summarize()
05:59
10
group_by() and summarize()
05:54
11
arrange()
02:07
12
Create a New Data Frame
03:58
13
Bring it All Together (Data Wrangling)
07:29
14
Week 2 Project Assignment
09:39
15
Week 2 Coworking Session (Spring 2025)
16
Week 2 Live Session (Spring 2025)
1:03:24
1
The Grammar of Graphics
04:39
2
Scatterplots
03:46
3
Histograms
05:47
4
Bar Charts
06:37
5
Setting color and fill Aesthetic Properties
02:39
6
Setting color and fill Scales
05:40
7
Setting x and y Scales
03:09
8
Adding Text to Plots
07:32
9
Plot Labels
03:57
10
Themes
02:19
11
Facets
03:12
12
Save Plots
02:57
13
Bring it All Together (Data Visualization)
06:42
14
Week 3 Project Assignment
03:30
15
Week 3 Coworking Session (Spring 2025)
16
Week 3 Live Session (Spring 2025)
1:02:31
1
Downloading and Importing Data
10:32
2
Overview of Tidy Data
05:50
3
Tidy Data Rule #1: Every Column is a Variable
07:43
4
Tidy Data Rule #3: Every Cell is a Single Value
10:04
5
Tidy Data Rule #2: Every Row is an Observation
04:42
6
Week 6 Coworking Session (Spring 2025)
7
Week 6 Live Session (Spring 2025)
1:02:38
1
Best Practices in Data Visualization
03:44
2
Tidy Data
02:25
3
Pipe Data into ggplot
09:54
4
Reorder Plots to Highlight Findings
03:37
5
Line Charts
04:17
6
Use Color to Highlight Findings
09:16
7
Declutter
08:29
8
Add Descriptive Labels to Your Plots
09:10
9
Use Titles to Highlight Findings
08:14
10
Use Annotations to Explain
07:09
11
Week 9 Coworking Session (Spring 2025)
12
Week 9 Live Session (Spring 2025)
59:09
1
Advanced Markdown
06:43
2
Tables
18:36
3
Advanced YAML and Code Chunk Options
05:53
4
Inline R Code
04:42
5
Making Your Reports Shine: Word Edition
04:30
6
Making Your Reports Shine: PDF Edition
06:11
7
Making Your Reports Shine: HTML Edition
06:06
8
Presentations
10:12
9
Dashboards
05:38
10
Websites
06:43
11
Publishing Your Work
04:38
12
Quarto Extensions
05:50
13
Parameterized Reporting, Part 1
10:57
14
Parameterized Reporting, Part 2
05:11
15
Parameterized Reporting, Part 3
07:47
16
Week 12 Coworking Session (Spring 2025)
17
Week 12 Live Session (Spring 2025)
57:01
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