What does 'Can't use `!!!` at top level.' mean and how to resolve it?

Question

I am trying to create a function for creating lollipop plots using ggplot2. I would like to pass all argument within ... to aes() within geom_point(). However, I'd like to exclude the size argument from passing onto aes() within geom_segment() (for obvious reasons if you look at the ouput of a() below). Therefore I capture ... using rlang::enquos() instead of just passing it on as is. In function a() where I pass the dots to aes() within ggplot() this works without a problem. But in function b() I get the error Can't use '!!!' at top level.

I am stuck at this point and would appreciate any input to solve this issue.

library(ggplot2)
data("mtcars")

d <- dplyr::count(mtcars, cyl, am)

a <- function(data, x, y, ...) {
  x <- rlang::enquo(x)
  y <- rlang::enquo(y)
  dots <- rlang::enquos(...)

  ggplot(data, aes(!!x, !!y, !!!dots)) +
    geom_segment(aes(y = 0, xend = !!x, yend = !!y)) +
    geom_point()
}

b <- function(data, x, y, ...) {
  x <- rlang::enquo(x)
  y <- rlang::enquo(y)

  dots <- rlang::enquos(...)
  segment_args <- dots[names(dots) != "size"]

  ggplot(data, aes(!!x, !!y)) +
    geom_segment(aes(y = 0, xend = !!x, yend = !!y, !!!segment_args)) +
    geom_point(aes(!!!dots))
}

a(d, cyl, n, color = factor(am), size = am)

b(d, cyl, n, color = factor(am), size = am)
#> Error: Can't use `!!!` at top level.

Here is my sessionInfo():

R version 3.5.2 (2018-12-20)
Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin16.7.0 (64-bit)
Running under: macOS Sierra 10.12.1

Matrix products: default
BLAS: /System/Library/Frameworks/Accelerate.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/vecLib.framework/Versions/A/libBLAS.dylib
LAPACK: /usr/local/Cellar/openblas/0.3.5/lib/libopenblasp-r0.3.5.dylib

locale:
[1] en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8/C/en_US.UTF-8/en_US.UTF-8

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods  
[7] base     

other attached packages:
[1] ggplot2_3.2.1

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
 [1] Rcpp_1.0.3       digest_0.6.18    withr_2.1.2     
 [4] assertthat_0.2.0 crayon_1.3.4     dplyr_0.8.3     
 [7] grid_3.5.2       R6_2.3.0         gtable_0.2.0    
[10] magrittr_1.5     scales_1.0.0     pillar_1.4.2    
[13] rlang_0.4.2      lazyeval_0.2.1   rstudioapi_0.10 
[16] labeling_0.3     tools_3.5.2      glue_1.3.0      
[19] purrr_0.3.3      munsell_0.5.0    compiler_3.5.2  
[22] pkgconfig_2.0.2  colorspace_1.4-0 tidyselect_0.2.5
[25] tibble_2.1.3

Answer 1

Apparently this is a known issue of aes() as you can verify here. A workaround is this:

b <- function(data, x, y, ...) {
  x <- rlang::enquo(x)
  y <- rlang::enquo(y)

  dots <- rlang::enquos(...)
  segment_args <- dots[names(dots) != "size"]

  ggplot(data, aes(!!x, !!y)) +
    geom_segment(aes(, y = 0, xend = !!x, yend = !!y, !!!segment_args)) +
    geom_point(aes(, , !!!dots))
}

Notice the single comma in geom_segment() and the double comma in geom_point().