Home/ Questions/Q 7405749
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-29T05:27:03+00:00

I am using geom_tile to create a table of quarterly figures, which is contained

  • 0

I am using geom_tile to create a table of quarterly figures, which is contained in a data frame. This seems to work without problems except when the data series begins in the middle of the year, typically in the April to June quarter. If I plot the data frame at the beginning of the calendar year, there is no problem: I get a well-formed highlight table.

from start of CY

However, to achieve that I have also excluded some of my data. If I specify a start date part way through the year, the data gets dispaced/jumbled up, like so:

enter image description here

Q. How can I plot the table such that even when the series begins in mid-year it somehow pads any missing data for the year in which it starts? That is, if my data begins in the July to September quarter, how can I force ggplot to put that first data point in the third column, leaving two blank tiles to the left?

Q. As a follow-up or perhaps the same question asked in a different way, how can I specify which quarter should be in the first column? Ideally I would like to be able to specify that the Jul-Sep quarter of each year is in the first column of the table and that the January to March quarter is in the fourth column.

Example follows:

require(lubridate)
require(ggplot2)

set.seed(12345)
df <- data.frame(date=seq(as.Date("2003/06/01"), by="month", length.out=103),myval=runif(103, min=-1, max=1))
df$date <- (df$date + months(1)) - days(1) # get last day of month
df$year <- as.numeric(format(as.Date(df$date), format="%Y"))
df$month <- as.numeric(format(as.Date(df$date), format="%m"))
# create quarterly label
df$qtr <- ifelse(df$month==3,"Jan-Mar",ifelse(df$month==6,"Apr-Jun",ifelse(df$month==9,"Jul-Sep",ifelse(df$month==12,"Oct-Dec",""))))
qtr <- df[ df$month %in% c(3,6,9,12), ] # extract quarter-end figures

p <- ggplot(qtr[qtr$date>='2004-01-01',], aes(x=qtr,y=year(date), fill = myval, label = sprintf("%1.1f%%", 100*myval))) + 
  scale_y_date(major="years", format="%Y") +
  scale_y_reverse(breaks=2003:2012, labels=2003:2012, expand=c(0,0)) + 
  geom_tile() + geom_text(size=geomtextsize,colour = "black") +
  scale_fill_gradient2(low = "blue", high = "red",,midpoint=0) +
  scale_x_discrete(expand=c(0,0))

print(p)

EDIT:
An image showing the final improved version incorporating Vincent’s suggestions and the code used to generate it follow below.

final version of highlight table

set.seed(12345)
df <- data.frame(date=seq(as.Date("2003/06/01"), by="month", length.out=103),myval=runif(103, min=-1, max=1))
df$date <- (df$date + months(1)) - days(1) # get last day of month
df$year <- as.numeric(format(as.Date(df$date), format="%Y"))
df$month <- as.numeric(format(as.Date(df$date), format="%m"))
# create quarterly label
df$qtr <- ifelse(df$month==3,"Jan-Mar",ifelse(df$month==6,"Apr-Jun",ifelse(df$month==9,"Jul-Sep",ifelse(df$month==12,"Oct-Dec",""))))
df$qtr[ df$qtr=="" ] <- NA
df$display_year <- ifelse( df$month < 4, df$year - 1, df$year )
df$display_year <- paste( df$display_year, df$display_year + 1, sep="-" )
df$qtr <- ordered(df$qtr, levels=c("Apr-Jun", "Jul-Sep", "Oct-Dec", "Jan-Mar"))
qtr <- df[ df$month %in% c(3,6,9,12), ]
qtr$display_year <- factor( qtr$display_year, levels = sort( unique(qtr$display_year), decreasing=TRUE ) )

p <- ggplot(qtr, aes(x=qtr,y=display_year, fill = myval, label = sprintf("%1.1f%%", 100*myval))) + 
scale_y_discrete(expand=c(0,0)) +
geom_tile() + geom_text(size=geomtextsize,colour = "black") +
scale_fill_gradient2(low = "blue", high = "red",,midpoint=0) +
scale_x_discrete(expand=c(0,0))
p
Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You can enforce the order of the quarters by ensuring they are of type ordered.

    df$qtr[ df$qtr=="" ] <- NA
df$qtr <- ordered(df$qtr, 
  levels=c("Jan-Mar", "Apr-Jun", "Jul-Sep", "Oct-Dec"))

    For the second question,
    you also need to change the year column to be the April-to-March year.

    df$display_year <- ifelse( df$month < 4, df$year - 1, df$year )
df$display_year <- paste( df$display_year, df$display_year + 1, sep="-" )
# Check the data
df[,c("year", "month", "qtr", "display_year")]
# Small change in the plot: the y axis is no longer a date
df$qtr <- ordered(df$qtr, levels=c("Apr-Jun", "Jul-Sep", "Oct-Dec", "Jan-Mar"))
qtr <- df[ df$month %in% c(3,6,9,12), ]
p <- ggplot(qtr[qtr$date>='2004-01-01',], aes(x=qtr,y=display_year, fill = myval, label = sprintf("%1.1f%%", 100*myval))) + 
  scale_y_discrete(expand=c(0,0)) +
  geom_tile() + geom_text(size=geomtextsize,colour = "black") +
  scale_fill_gradient2(low = "blue", high = "red",,midpoint=0) +
  scale_x_discrete(expand=c(0,0))
p
    • 0