Search code examples
rggplot2geom-bar

Add gradient color within groups in ggplot2

I need help in order to add colors to ggplot objects (specificaly geom_bar).

Here is my data

Names       Family          Groups    Values
H.sapiens   A               G1        2
H.erectus   A               G1        6 
H.erectus   B               G2        12
M.griseus   C               G2        3
A.mellifera D               G3        3
L.niger     D               G3        8
H.erectus   D               G3        2
L.niger     A               G1        3
L.niger     B               G2        3
A.mellifera A               G1        8

And so far I suceeded to create this plot :

enter image description here

with this code :

library(ggplot2)
library(ggstance)
library(ggthemes)
ggplot(table, aes(fill=Family, y=Names, x=Values)) + 
  geom_barh(stat="identity",colour="white")+ theme_minimal() +
  scale_x_continuous(limits = c(0,60), expand = c(0, 0))

and now I would like to change the color depending of Groups. More precisely I would like to choose a major color for each group, for instance: G1= blue ; G2 = Green ; G3= Red.

and for each Family to get a gradient within these colors. For instance, B will be darkblue and C ligthblue.

Does someone have an idea, please ?

Here are the data :

dput(table)
structure(list(Names = structure(c(3L, 2L, 2L, 5L, 1L, 4L, 2L, 
4L, 4L, 1L), .Label = c("A.mellifera", "H.erectus", "H.sapiens", 
"L.niger", "M.griseus"), class = "factor"), Family = structure(c(1L, 
1L, 2L, 3L, 4L, 4L, 4L, 1L, 2L, 1L), .Label = c("A", "B", "C", 
"D"), class = "factor"), Groups = structure(c(1L, 1L, 2L, 2L, 
3L, 3L, 3L, 1L, 2L, 1L), .Label = c("G1", "G2", "G3"), class = "factor"), 
    Values = c(2L, 6L, 12L, 3L, 3L, 8L, 2L, 3L, 3L, 8L)), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, 
-10L))
Solution

  • We can create range of colours for each Group then match on order of Family. You might need to play around with colours to make the difference more prominent:

    cols <- lapply(list(G1 = c("darkblue", "lightblue"),
                    G2 = c("darkgreen", "lightgreen"),
                    G3 = c("red4", "red")),
               function(i) colorRampPalette(i)(length(unique(table$Family))))

table$col <- mapply(function(g, i) cols[[ g ]][ i ], 
                    g = table$Groups, i = as.numeric(table$Family))

ggplot(table, aes(x = Values, y = Names, fill = col )) + 
  geom_barh(stat = "identity", colour = "white") +
  scale_x_continuous(limits = c(0, 60), expand = c(0, 0)) +
  scale_fill_identity() +
  theme_minimal()

    enter image description here