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Expand on docs/example for cases with non-equal-width bins in stat_bin() #6151

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merged 4 commits into from
Oct 25, 2024

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mattansb
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This PR addresses the points brought up in #5895:

  • The default behavior of stat_bin() of mapping counts to height instead of area is suitable for most common applications.
  • This is because most common applications use equal-width bins.
  • When non-equal-width bins are used, this behavior produces histograms that are hard to interpret and violate the proportional ink principle.
  • Therefore, I suggested adding to the docs/examples something that discusses this / shows how to do it properly.

Which is what I did

The Changes

1. Slightly expanded the Computed variables bullet for width.

Previously was:

  • after_stat(width)
    widths of bins.

Now is:

  • after_stat(width)
    widths of bins. Use with after_stat(count / width) to obtain bars with areas representing counts (e.g., with non-equal-width bins). See example.

2. Added an example

# When using the non-equal-width bins, we need to set the area of the bars to
# represent the counts (not the height).
# Here we're using 10 equi-probable bins:
price_bins <- quantile(diamonds$price, probs = seq(0, 1, length = 11))

ggplot(diamonds, aes(price)) +
  geom_histogram(breaks = price_bins, color = "black") # wrong (height = count)

ggplot(diamonds, aes(price, after_stat(count / width))) +
  geom_histogram(breaks = price_bins, color = "black") # area = count

Created on 2024-10-21 with reprex v2.1.1

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@teunbrand teunbrand left a comment

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Thanks for submitting a PR to fix this! This mostly looks great, I'd just like to move a small part for clarity.

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@mattansb
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@teunbrand I think that's all of it!

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Lovely, looks great! Thank you for the contribution

@mattansb
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Thank you!

@teunbrand teunbrand merged commit f12b73d into tidyverse:main Oct 25, 2024
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2 participants