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rggplot2ggrepel

How do I send arrows which cover other labels to the back in geom_label_repel?


This should seem fairly straight forward but I can't find any argument to do this with ggrepel::geom_label_repel().

Sample of data:

df <- structure(list(Athletename = c("Aries Merritt", "Damian Warner"
), Score = c(12.8, 13.44), Event = c("110m hurdles", "110m hurdles"
), Points = c(1135, 1048), Record = c("World Record", "Decathlon Record"
), score_and_points = c("12.8s, 1135pts", "13.44s, 1048pts")), row.names = c(NA, 
-2L), class = c("tbl_df", "tbl", "data.frame"), .Names = c("Athletename", 
"Score", "Event", "Points", "Record", "score_and_points"))

ggplot2 code:

ggplot(data = data.frame(x = 0), mapping = aes(x = x)) +
  geom_point(data = df, aes(x=Score, y=Points, colour=Record)) +
  geom_label_repel(data = df, 
                   aes(x=Score, y=Points, label = Athletename), 
                   direction = "x",
                   nudge_x = -10) +
  geom_label_repel(data = df, 
                   aes(x=Score, y=Points, label = score_and_points), 
                   direction = "y",
                   nudge_y = -200) +
  scale_y_continuous(name = "Points", 
                     breaks = seq(0,1500,100),
                     limits = c(0,1500)) +
  scale_x_reverse(name = "110m hurdles time (m)",
                     breaks = seq(29,12,-1),
                     limits=c(29,12)) +
  theme(legend.title = element_blank(), legend.position = "top")

enter image description here


Solution

  • Hacky but works: add a copy of the geom_label_repel call, but with the addition of segment.alpha = 0. Then all the labels will be on top of all the arrows.

    library(ggrepel)
    ggplot(data = data.frame(x = 0), mapping = aes(x = x)) +
      geom_point(data = df, aes(x=Score, y=Points, colour=Record)) +
      geom_label_repel(data = df,
                       aes(x=Score, y=Points, label = Athletename),
                       direction = "x",
                       nudge_x = -10) +
      geom_label_repel(data = df, 
                       aes(x=Score, y=Points, label = score_and_points), 
                       direction = "y",
                       nudge_y = -200, ) +
      geom_label_repel(data = df, 
                       aes(x=Score, y=Points, label = score_and_points), 
                       direction = "y", segment.alpha = 0,
                       nudge_y = -200, ) +
      scale_y_continuous(name = "Points", 
                         breaks = seq(0,1500,100),
                         limits = c(0,1500)) +
      scale_x_reverse(name = "110m hurdles time (m)",
                      breaks = seq(29,12,-1),
                      limits=c(29,12)) +
      theme(legend.title = element_blank(), legend.position = "top")
    

    enter image description here