R Data Visualisation Example using ggplot2

Import library

library(ggplot2)
library(ggbeeswarm)

Generate Sample Data for Plotting purposes

# Sample data
set.seed(007)
y <- round(rnorm(300), 1)

df <- data.frame(y = y,
                group = sample(c("G1", "G2", "G3"),
                               size = 300,
                               replace = TRUE))

head(df)
##      y group
## 1  2.3    G3
## 2 -1.2    G1
## 3 -0.7    G2
## 4 -0.4    G2
## 5 -1.0    G2
## 6 -0.9    G3

Beeswarm plot in ggplot2 with geom_beeswarm

The ggbeeswarm package contains a function named geom_beeswarm, which can be used to create a beeswarm in ggplot2.

# Basic beeswarm plot in ggplot2
ggplot(df, aes(x = group, y = y)) +
  geom_beeswarm()

Size and scaling

By default the observations are shown all very close to each other. You can use the cex argument to increase the spacing and size to increase the size of the point.

# Beeswarm plot in ggplot2
ggplot(df, aes(x = group, y = y)) +
  geom_beeswarm(cex = 3)

Color by group

As with other ggplot2 charts if you want to color the observations by group you can pass the categorical variable to the color or colour argument of aes.

# Beeswarm plot in ggplot2
ggplot(df, aes(x = group, y = y, color = group)) +
  geom_beeswarm(cex = 3)

Change the colors

If you color the observations by group a default color scale will be used. You can change the colors with scale_color_brewer, scale_color_manual or an equivalent color scale.

# Beeswarm plot in ggplot2
ggplot(df, aes(x = group, y = y, color = group)) +
  geom_beeswarm(cex = 3) +
  scale_color_brewer(palette = "Set2")