Width of error bars in line plot using ggplot2
Below is a reproducible example using random data. The fix to the problem is to multiply the width by the number of classes/factors that you have. In the plot below, since I used three factors, using a width of 3 fixes the problem. ggplot2 seems to calculate the relative width by the number of data points in your dataset, rather than the numeric values on the x-axis. This is (IMO) a bug.
library(ggplot2)library(grid)#plot with factorshod <- data.frame(h = c(1:24,1:24,1:24), mean = 1:(24*3) + runif(24*3, 0, 5),ci = runif(24*3, 0, 2), t = c(rep("a",24),rep("b",24),rep("c",24)))pd <- position_dodge(0.3) dayplot <- ggplot(hod, aes(x=h, y=mean, colour=as.factor(t),group=as.factor(t))) + geom_line(position=pd, size=1) + geom_errorbar(aes(ymin=mean-ci, ymax=mean+ci), width=1, size=0.5, position=pd) + geom_point(position=pd, shape=21, size=1, fill="white") + scale_x_continuous(limits=c(-0.5,23.5), breaks=c(0:8*3), labels=ifelse( c(0:8*3) < 10, paste('0',c(0:8*3),':00',sep=''), paste(c(0:8*3),':00',sep='') ) ) + xlab("Hour of day") + theme_minimal() + theme(plot.margin = unit(c(1,0,1,1), "cm"), axis.title.x = element_text(vjust=-1), axis.title.y = element_text(angle=90, vjust=0), legend.margin = unit(c(0), "cm"), legend.key.height = unit(c(0.9), "cm"), panel.grid.major = element_line(colour=rgb(0.87,0.87,0.87)), panel.grid.minor = element_blank(), plot.background = element_rect(fill = rgb(0.97,0.97,0.97), linetype=0) )print(dayplot)#plot without factorshod <- data.frame(h = c(1:24,1:24,1:24), mean = 1:(24) + runif(24, 0, 5),ci = runif(24, 0, 2))pd <- position_dodge(0.3) dayplot <- ggplot(hod, aes(x=h, y=mean)) + geom_line(position=pd, size=1) + geom_errorbar(aes(ymin=mean-ci, ymax=mean+ci), width=1, size=0.5, position=pd) + geom_point(position=pd, shape=21, size=1, fill="white") + scale_x_continuous(limits=c(-0.5,23.5), breaks=c(0:8*3), labels=ifelse( c(0:8*3) < 10, paste('0',c(0:8*3),':00',sep=''), paste(c(0:8*3),':00',sep='') ) ) + xlab("Hour of day") + theme_minimal() + theme(plot.margin = unit(c(1,0,1,1), "cm"), axis.title.x = element_text(vjust=-1), axis.title.y = element_text(angle=90, vjust=0), legend.margin = unit(c(0), "cm"), legend.key.height = unit(c(0.9), "cm"), panel.grid.major = element_line(colour=rgb(0.87,0.87,0.87)), panel.grid.minor = element_blank(), plot.background = element_rect(fill = rgb(0.97,0.97,0.97), linetype=0) )print(dayplot)
I have managed to solve a similar issue. In my case I wanted to set both horizontal and vertical errorbar heads to the same size - regardless of the aspect ratio of the plot.
Based on the original posted code:
f <- ggplot_build(dayplot)f$plot$layers[[5]]$geom_params$width <- 0.02 * diff(f$layout$panel_params[[1]]$x.range)f$plot$layers[[6]]$geom_params$height <- 0.02 * diff(f$layout$panel_params[[1]]$y.range)dayplot <- f$plot
This will set the errorbar head to 2% of the axis range. Maybe could solve your issue.