R > Basic Charts > Bar Charts
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Bar Charts in R

How to make a bar chart in R. Examples of grouped, stacked, overlaid, and colored bar charts.


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Plotly is a free and open-source graphing library for R. We recommend you read our Getting Started guide for the latest installation or upgrade instructions, then move on to our Plotly Fundamentals tutorials or dive straight in to some Basic Charts tutorials.

Basic Bar Chart

library(plotly)

fig <- plot_ly(
  x = c("giraffes", "orangutans", "monkeys"),
  y = c(20, 14, 23),
  name = "SF Zoo",
  type = "bar"
)

fig

Grouped Bar Chart

library(plotly)

Animals <- c("giraffes", "orangutans", "monkeys")
SF_Zoo <- c(20, 14, 23)
LA_Zoo <- c(12, 18, 29)
data <- data.frame(Animals, SF_Zoo, LA_Zoo)

fig <- plot_ly(data, x = ~Animals, y = ~SF_Zoo, type = 'bar', name = 'SF Zoo')
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(y = ~LA_Zoo, name = 'LA Zoo')
fig <- fig %>% layout(yaxis = list(title = 'Count'), barmode = 'group')

fig

Stacked Bar Chart

library(plotly)

Animals <- c("giraffes", "orangutans", "monkeys")
SF_Zoo <- c(20, 14, 23)
LA_Zoo <- c(12, 18, 29)
data <- data.frame(Animals, SF_Zoo, LA_Zoo)

fig <- plot_ly(data, x = ~Animals, y = ~SF_Zoo, type = 'bar', name = 'SF Zoo')
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(y = ~LA_Zoo, name = 'LA Zoo')
fig <- fig %>% layout(yaxis = list(title = 'Count'), barmode = 'stack')

fig

Bar Chart with Hover Text

library(plotly)

x <- c('Product A', 'Product B', 'Product C')
y <- c(20, 14, 23)
text <- c('27% market share', '24% market share', '19% market share')
data <- data.frame(x, y, text)

fig <- plot_ly(data, x = ~x, y = ~y, type = 'bar', text = text,
        marker = list(color = 'rgb(158,202,225)',
                      line = list(color = 'rgb(8,48,107)',
                                  width = 1.5)))
fig <- fig %>% layout(title = "January 2013 Sales Report",
         xaxis = list(title = ""),
         yaxis = list(title = ""))

fig

Bar Chart with Direct Labels

library(plotly)

x <- c('Product A', 'Product B', 'Product C')
y <- c(20, 14, 23)
text <- c('27% market share', '24% market share', '19% market share')
data <- data.frame(x, y, text)

fig <- plot_ly(data, x = ~x, y = ~y, type = 'bar',
             text = y, textposition = 'auto',
             marker = list(color = 'rgb(158,202,225)',
                           line = list(color = 'rgb(8,48,107)', width = 1.5)))
fig <- fig %>% layout(title = "January 2013 Sales Report",
         xaxis = list(title = ""),
         yaxis = list(title = ""))

fig

Grouped Bar Chart with Direct Labels

library(plotly)

x <- c('Product A', 'Product B', 'Product C')
y <- c(20, 14, 23)
y2 <- c(16,12,27)
text <- c('27% market share', '24% market share', '19% market share')
data <- data.frame(x, y, y2, text)

fig <- data %>% plot_ly()
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(x = ~x, y = ~y, type = 'bar',
             text = y, textposition = 'auto',
             marker = list(color = 'rgb(158,202,225)',
                           line = list(color = 'rgb(8,48,107)', width = 1.5)))
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(x = ~x, y = ~y2, type = 'bar',
            text = y2, textposition = 'auto',
            marker = list(color = 'rgb(58,200,225)',
                          line = list(color = 'rgb(8,48,107)', width = 1.5)))
fig <- fig %>% layout(title = "January 2013 Sales Report",
         barmode = 'group',
         xaxis = list(title = ""),
         yaxis = list(title = ""))

fig

Rotated Bar Chart Labels

library(plotly)

x <- c('January', 'February', 'March', 'April', 'May', 'June', 'July', 'August', 'September', 'October', 'November', 'December')
y1 <- c(20, 14, 25, 16, 18, 22, 19, 15, 12, 16, 14, 17)
y2 <- c(19, 14, 22, 14, 16, 19, 15, 14, 10, 12, 12, 16)
data <- data.frame(x, y1, y2)

#The default order will be alphabetized unless specified as below:
data$x <- factor(data$x, levels = data[["x"]])

fig <- plot_ly(data, x = ~x, y = ~y1, type = 'bar', name = 'Primary Product', marker = list(color = 'rgb(49,130,189)'))
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(y = ~y2, name = 'Secondary Product', marker = list(color = 'rgb(204,204,204)'))
fig <- fig %>% layout(xaxis = list(title = "", tickangle = -45),
         yaxis = list(title = ""),
         margin = list(b = 100),
         barmode = 'group')

fig

Customizing Bar Color

library(plotly)

x <- c('Feature A', 'Feature B', 'Feature C', 'Feature D', 'Feature E')
y <- c(20, 14, 23, 25, 22)
data <- data.frame(x, y)

fig <- plot_ly(data, x = ~x, y = ~y, type = 'bar', color = I("black"))
fig <- fig %>% layout(title = "Features",
         xaxis = list(title = ""),
         yaxis = list(title = ""))

fig

Customizing Individual Bar Colors

library(plotly)

x <- c('Feature A', 'Feature B', 'Feature C', 'Feature D', 'Feature E')
y <- c(20, 14, 23, 25, 22)
data <- data.frame(x, y)

fig <- plot_ly(data, x = ~x, y = ~y, type = 'bar',
        marker = list(color = c('rgba(204,204,204,1)', 'rgba(222,45,38,0.8)',
                                'rgba(204,204,204,1)', 'rgba(204,204,204,1)',
                                'rgba(204,204,204,1)')))
fig <- fig %>% layout(title = "Least Used Features",
         xaxis = list(title = ""),
         yaxis = list(title = ""))

fig

Customizing Individual Bar Widths

library(plotly)

x= c(1, 2, 3, 5.5, 10)
y= c(10, 8, 6, 4, 2)
width = c(0.8, 0.8, 0.8, 3.5, 4)
data <- data.frame(x, y, width)

fig <- plot_ly(data)
fig <- fig %>% add_bars(
    x= ~x,
    y= ~y,
    width = ~width
  )

fig

Customizing Individual Bar Base

library(plotly)

fig <- plot_ly()
fig <- fig %>% add_bars(
    x = c("2016", "2017", "2018"),
    y = c(500,600,700),
    base = c(-500,-600,-700),
    marker = list(
      color = 'red'
    ),
    name = 'expenses'
  )
fig <- fig %>% add_bars(
    x = c("2016", "2017", "2018"),
    y = c(300,400,700),
    base = 0,
    marker = list(
      color = 'blue'
    ),
    name = 'revenue'
  )

fig

Mapping a Color Variable

library(plotly)
library(dplyr)

fig <- ggplot2::diamonds
fig <- fig %>% count(cut, clarity)
fig <- fig %>% plot_ly(x = ~cut, y = ~n, color = ~clarity)

fig

Colored and Styled Bar Chart

library(plotly)

x <- c(1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)
roW <- c(219, 146, 112, 127, 124, 180, 236, 207, 236, 263, 350, 430, 474, 526, 488, 537, 500, 439)
China <- c(16, 13, 10, 11, 28, 37, 43, 55, 56, 88, 105, 156, 270, 299, 340, 403, 549, 499)
data <- data.frame(x, roW, China)

fig <- plot_ly(data, x = ~x, y = ~roW, type = 'bar', name = 'Rest of the World',
        marker = list(color = 'rgb(55, 83, 109)'))
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(y = ~China, name = 'China', marker = list(color = 'rgb(26, 118, 255)'))
fig <- fig %>% layout(title = 'US Export of Plastic Scrap',
         xaxis = list(
           title = "",
           tickfont = list(
             size = 14,
             color = 'rgb(107, 107, 107)')),
         yaxis = list(
           title = 'USD (millions)',
           titlefont = list(
             size = 16,
             color = 'rgb(107, 107, 107)'),
           tickfont = list(
             size = 14,
             color = 'rgb(107, 107, 107)')),
         legend = list(x = 0, y = 1, bgcolor = 'rgba(255, 255, 255, 0)', bordercolor = 'rgba(255, 255, 255, 0)'),
         barmode = 'group', bargap = 0.15, bargroupgap = 0.1)

fig

Waterfall Bar Chart

library(plotly)

x <- c('Product<br>Revenue', 'Services<br>Revenue', 'Total<br>Revenue', 'Fixed<br>Costs', 'Variable<br>Costs', 'Total<br>Costs', 'Total')
y <- c(400, 660, 660, 590, 400, 400, 340)
base <- c(0, 430, 0, 570, 370, 370, 0)
revenue <- c(430, 260, 690, 0, 0, 0, 0)
costs <- c(0, 0, 0, 120, 200, 320, 0)
profit <- c(0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 370)
text <- c('$430K', '$260K', '$690K', '$-120K', '$-200K', '$-320K', '$370K')
data <- data.frame(x, base, revenue, costs, profit, text)

#The default order will be alphabetized unless specified as below:
data$x <- factor(data$x, levels = data[["x"]])

fig <- plot_ly(data, x = ~x, y = ~base, type = 'bar', marker = list(color = 'rgba(1,1,1, 0.0)'))
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(y = ~revenue, marker = list(color = 'rgba(55, 128, 191, 0.7)',
                                        line = list(color = 'rgba(55, 128, 191, 0.7)',
                                                    width = 2)))
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(y = ~costs, marker = list(color = 'rgba(219, 64, 82, 0.7)',
                                      line = list(color = 'rgba(219, 64, 82, 1.0)',
                                                  width = 2)))
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(y = ~profit, marker = list(color = 'rgba(50, 171, 96, 0.7)',
                                      line = list(color = 'rgba(50, 171, 96, 1.0)',
                                                  width = 2)))
fig <- fig %>% layout(title = 'Annual Profit - 2015',
         xaxis = list(title = ""),
         yaxis = list(title = ""),
         barmode = 'stack',
         paper_bgcolor = 'rgba(245, 246, 249, 1)',
         plot_bgcolor = 'rgba(245, 246, 249, 1)',
         showlegend = FALSE)
fig <- fig %>% add_annotations(text = text,
                  x = x,
                  y = y,
                  xref = "x",
                  yref = "y",
                  font = list(family = 'Arial',
                              size = 14,
                              color = 'rgba(245, 246, 249, 1)'),
                  showarrow = FALSE)

fig

Horizontal Bar Chart

See examples of horizontal bar charts here.

Reference

See https://plotly.com/r/reference/#bar for more information and chart attribute options!

What About Dash?

Dash for R is an open-source framework for building analytical applications, with no Javascript required, and it is tightly integrated with the Plotly graphing library.

Learn about how to install Dash for R at https://dashr.plot.ly/installation.

Everywhere in this page that you see fig, you can display the same figure in a Dash for R application by passing it to the figure argument of the Graph component from the built-in dashCoreComponents package like this:

library(plotly)

fig <- plot_ly() 
# fig <- fig %>% add_trace( ... )
# fig <- fig %>% layout( ... ) 

library(dash)
library(dashCoreComponents)
library(dashHtmlComponents)

app <- Dash$new()
app$layout(
    htmlDiv(
        list(
            dccGraph(figure=fig) 
        )
     )
)

app$run_server(debug=TRUE, dev_tools_hot_reload=FALSE)