Formatting labels on plots.¶

In Lets-Plot you can apply a formatting to:

axis break values.
labels displayed by geomText().
tooltip text.
facet labels.

Using format string you can format values of numeric and date-time types.

In addition, you can use a string template.

In string template the value's format string is surrounded by curly braces: "... {.2f} ...".

An empty placeholder {} is also allowed. In this case a default string representation will be shown. This is also applicable to categorical values.

To learn more about formatting templates see: Formatting.

In [1]:

%useLatestDescriptors
%use lets-plot
//%use krangl

In [2]:

LetsPlot.getInfo()  // This prevents Krangl from loading an obsolete version of Lets-Plot classes.

Out[2]:

Lets-Plot Kotlin API v.4.1.1. Frontend: Notebook with dynamically loaded JS. Lets-Plot JS v.2.5.1.

The US Unemployment Rates 2000-2016¶

In [3]:

%use krangl

In [4]:

var economics = DataFrame.readCSV("https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/ggplot2/economics.csv")

In [5]:

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat
val yyyyMmDd = SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd")
economics = economics.addColumn("date") { it["date"].map<String> {yyyyMmDd.parse(it)}}
economics.head(3)

Out[5]:

	date	pce	pop	psavert	uempmed	unemploy
1	Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1967	506.7	198712	12.6	4.5	2944
2	Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1967	509.8	198911	12.6	4.7	2945
3	Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1967	515.6	199113	11.9	4.6	2958

Shape: 3 x 7.

In [6]:

import java.util.Date
val startDate = yyyyMmDd.parse("2000-01-01")
economics = economics.filterByRow { (it["date"] as Date).compareTo(startDate) >= 0 }

In [7]:

val p = letsPlot(economics.toMap()){x="date"; y="uempmed"} + 
    geomLine() +
    ylab("unemployment rate") +
    ggsize(900, 400)

Default plot (no formatting)¶

In [8]:

p + scaleXDateTime()

Out[8]:

Apply formatting to X and Y axis labels.¶

Use the format parameter in scaleXxx().

Note that the text in tooltips is now also formatted.

In [9]:

p + scaleXDateTime(format="%b %Y") + scaleYContinuous(format="{} %")

Out[9]:

Format axis labels for breaks specified manually¶

In [10]:

val breaks = listOf(
    yyyyMmDd.parse("2001-01-01"), 
    yyyyMmDd.parse("2016-01-01")
)

p + scaleXDateTime(format="%b %Y", breaks=breaks) + scaleYContinuous(format="{} %")

Out[10]:

Configure tooltip's text and location.¶

In [11]:

letsPlot(economics.toMap()){x="date"; y="uempmed"} + 
 geomLine(tooltips=layerTooltips()
        .line("Unemployment rate:|^y")
        .anchor("top_center")
        .minWidth(170)) + 
 scaleXDateTime(format="%b %Y") +
 scaleYContinuous(format="{} %") +
 ylab("unemployment rate") +
 ggsize(900, 400)

Out[11]:

Format value shown in tooltip.¶

In [12]:

letsPlot(economics.toMap()){x="date"; y="uempmed"} +
 geomLine(tooltips=layerTooltips()
               .line("@uempmed % in @date")
               .format("date", "%B %Y")
               .anchor("top_left")
               .minWidth(170)) +
 scaleXDateTime() +
 scaleYContinuous() +
 ylab("unemployment rate") +
 ggsize(900, 400)

Out[12]:

Add the unemployment rate mean.¶

The geomText label is formatted using the labelFormat parameter.

In [13]:

val unemploymentMean = economics["uempmed"].mean()


letsPlot(economics.toMap()){x="date"; y="uempmed"} + 
 geomLine(tooltips=layerTooltips()
        .line("Unemployment rate:|^y %")
        .anchor("top_center")
        .minWidth(170)) + 
 geomHLine(yintercept=unemploymentMean, color="red", linetype="dashed", tooltips=tooltipsNone) +
 geomText(label=unemploymentMean.toString(), 
           labelFormat="{.2f} %",
           x=startDate.toInstant().toEpochMilli(), y=unemploymentMean!! + 0.5, 
           color="red") +
 scaleXDateTime(format="%b %Y") + 
 scaleYContinuous(format="{} %") + 
 ylab("unemployment rate") +
 ggtitle("The US Unemployment Rates 2000-2016.") +
 ggsize(900, 400)

Out[13]: