Search code examples
rggplot2facet-wrapfacet-gridr-faq

Annotating text on individual facet in ggplot2


I want to annotate some text on last facet of the plot with the following code:

library(ggplot2)
p <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt)) + geom_point()
p <- p + facet_grid(. ~ cyl)
p <- p + annotate("text", label = "Test", size = 4, x = 15, y = 5)
print(p)

enter image description here

But this code annotates the text on every facet. How can I get the annotated text on only one facet?


Solution

  • Function annotate() adds the same label to all panels in a plot with facets. If the intention is to add different annotations to each panel, or annotations to only some panels, a geom_ has to be used instead of annotate(). To use a geom, such as geom_text() we need to assemble a data frame containing the text of the labels in one column and columns for the variables to be mapped to other aesthetics, as well as the variable(s) used for faceting.

    Typically you'd do something like this:

    ann_text <- data.frame(mpg = 15,wt = 5,lab = "Text",
                           cyl = factor(8,levels = c("4","6","8")))
    p + geom_text(data = ann_text,label = "Text")
    

    It should work without specifying the factor variable completely, but will probably throw some warnings:

    enter image description here