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Making Beautiful Tables with R

Add your own ggplot

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Let’s redo our own density plots.

single_species_weights <- penguin_mass$body_masses[[1]]

gg_density_plot <- function(weights) {
  ggplot() +
    stat_density(aes(x = weights), fill = 'dodgerblue4', col = 'grey20') +
    coord_cartesian(xlim = range(penguins$body_mass_g)) +
    theme_void()
}


list_of_ggplots <- map(penguin_mass$body_masses, gg_density_plot)


penguin_mass |> 
  flextable() |> 
  compose(
    j = 'body_masses',
    value = as_paragraph(
      gg_chunk(
        value = list_of_ggplots,
        width = 3,
        height = 1
      )
    )
  )
gg_density_box_plot <- function(weights) {
  ggplot(mapping = aes(x = weights)) +
    stat_density(fill = 'dodgerblue4', col = 'grey20') +
    geom_boxplot(width = 0.0005, position = position_nudge(y = -0.0005)) +
    coord_cartesian(xlim = range(penguins$body_mass_g)) +
    theme_void()
}

list_of_ggplots <- map(penguin_mass$body_masses, gg_density_box_plot)


penguin_mass |> 
  flextable() |> 
  compose(
    j = 'body_masses',
    value = as_paragraph(
      gg_chunk(
        value = list_of_ggplots,
        width = 3,
        height = 1
      )
    )
  )

Your Turn

Redo the table from the previous exercise but use ggplot to draw the sparklines. This time, also add small dots at beginning and end of each sparkline.

Hint: If you want, you can manually change the width of the sparkline column with width() after autofit() was called.

Your table should look like this:

Have any questions? Put them below and we will help you out!

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Majeed Oladokun

Majeed Oladokun • August 27, 2024

Hi,

I need help on adding the sparkline as ggplot object. I was able to add the sparklines and the dots as required. However, the dots are being partly cut-off in the cell. Below are excerpts from the code I used.

# Define plot function
gg_sparkline_plot <- function(life_exp) {
  
  # define x-variable
  xvar = seq_along(life_exp) 
  
  ggplot() +
    geom_line(aes(x = xvar, y = life_exp), colour = 'dodgerblue4', linewidth = 1.2) +
    geom_point(
      aes(x = c(first(xvar), last(xvar)),
          y = c(first(life_exp), last(life_exp))), 
      size = 3,
      colour = 'dodgerblue4') +
    coord_cartesian(clip = "off") +
    theme_void()
}

# Data used for table
# Note life_expectancies_wider is the wide format of gapminder data
# after subseting it for the selected countries and year. 
life_expectancies <- gapminder::gapminder |>
  janitor::clean_names()

selected_countries_vector <- c(
  'Egypt', 'Sierra Leone', 'Nicaragua', 
  'Jamaica', 'Syria', 'Singapore',
  'Netherlands', 'United Kingdom', 
  'New Zealand', 'Australia'
)

life_expectancies_wider <- life_expectancies |>
  filter(country %in% selected_countries_vector) |>
  filter(year %in% seq(1957, 2007, 10)) |>
  select(country:life_exp) |>
  pivot_wider(
    names_from = c(year),
    names_prefix = "year",
    values_from = life_exp
  ) |>
  relocate(continent, .before = country) |>
  arrange(continent, country) 

table_dat <- life_expectancies_wider |> 
  bind_rows(life_expectancies_summary_stats) |> 
  arrange(continent) |>
  rowwise() %>%
  # nest all the life_exp from 1957:2007
  mutate(trends = list(c_across(year1957:year2007))) |>
  ungroup() 

# Create flextable 
table_dat |> 
  mutate( trends = map(trends, gg_sparkline_plot) ) |>
  flextable() |> 
  compose(
    j = 'trends',
    value = as_paragraph(
      gg_chunk(
        value = trends,
        width = 1,
        height = 0.3
      )
    )
  ) |>
  # style(j = "trends", pr_c = fp_cell(margin = 5)) |>
  autofit() |>
  width(j = "trends", width = 1.2, unit = "cm")

The code runs but the dots are being chopped off within the table. I attemped to use the commented # style(j = "trends", pr_c = fp_cell(margin = 5)) to check if increasing the cell margin will correct the problem, but to no avail.

I am wonderng if you could share the TRICK to correct the problem.

Thank you.

Albert Rapp

Albert Rapp • August 28, 2024

Hi Majeed,

try making the underlying chart image have more spacing. To do so, you could expand the x- and y-axis spacing by adding

    scale_y_continuous(expand = expansion(mult = 0.5)) +
    scale_x_continuous(expand = expansion(mult = 0.1))

to your ggplot.

Best, Albert

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