Stream Graph (River Plot)

Creates stream (river) graphs showing how composition changes over a continuous or ordered variable. Unlike AreaPlot (which uses stacking), StreamGraph uses a symmetric baseline producing a "river" shape. Requires the ggstream package.

Usage

StreamGraph(
  data,
  x,
  y,
  group_by,
  group_by_sep = "_",
  group_name = NULL,
  type = c("mirror", "proportional", "ridge"),
  sorting = c("none", "onset", "inside_out"),
  bw = 0.75,
  split_by = NULL,
  split_by_sep = "_",
  facet_by = NULL,
  facet_scales = "fixed",
  facet_nrow = NULL,
  facet_ncol = NULL,
  facet_byrow = TRUE,
  theme = "theme_ggforge",
  theme_args = list(),
  palette = "forge",
  palcolor = NULL,
  alpha = 0.85,
  aspect.ratio = NULL,
  legend.position = "right",
  legend.direction = "vertical",
  title = NULL,
  subtitle = NULL,
  xlab = NULL,
  ylab = NULL,
  seed = 8525,
  combine = TRUE,
  nrow = NULL,
  ncol = NULL,
  byrow = TRUE,
  axes = NULL,
  axis_titles = NULL,
  guides = NULL,
  design = NULL,
  ...
)

Arguments

data

A data frame containing the data to plot

x

Column for x-axis (typically time or ordered variable).

y

Column for y-axis values (numeric).

group_by

Column for grouping streams.

group_by_sep

Separator for multiple group_by columns.

group_name

Legend title for groups.

type

Stream type: "mirror" (symmetric), "proportional", or "ridge".

sorting

Sorting method for streams: "none", "onset", or "inside_out".

bw

Bandwidth for smoothing.

split_by

Column name(s) to split data into multiple plots

split_by_sep

Separator when concatenating multiple split_by columns

facet_by

Column name(s) for faceting the plot

facet_scales

Scales for facets: "fixed", "free", "free_x", "free_y"

facet_nrow

Number of rows in facet layout

facet_ncol

Number of columns in facet layout

facet_byrow

Fill facets by row (TRUE) or column (FALSE)

theme

Theme name (string) or theme function

theme_args

List of arguments passed to theme function

palette

Color palette name

palcolor

Custom colors for palette

alpha

Transparency level (0-1)

aspect.ratio

Aspect ratio of plot panel

legend.position

Legend position: "none", "left", "right", "bottom", "top"

legend.direction

Legend direction: "horizontal" or "vertical"

title

Plot title

subtitle

Plot subtitle

xlab

X-axis label

ylab

Y-axis label

seed

Random seed for reproducibility

combine

Whether to combine split plots into one

nrow

Number of rows when combining plots

ncol

Number of columns when combining plots

byrow

Fill combined plots by row

axes

How to handle axes in combined plots ("keep", "collect", "collect_x", "collect_y")

axis_titles

How to handle axis titles in combined plots

guides

How to handle guides in combined plots ("collect", "keep", "auto")

design

Custom layout design for combined plots

...

Additional arguments passed to atomic plotting functions.

Value

A ggplot object or combined plots

See also

Other basic-plots: AreaPlot(), BarPlot(), BoxPlot(), DensityPlot(), DotPlot(), DumbbellPlot(), Histogram(), JitterPlot(), LinePlot(), LollipopPlot(), ParallelCoordPlot(), QQPlot(), RidgePlot(), ScatterPlot(), SplitBarPlot(), TimelinePlot(), TreemapPlot(), TrendPlot(), ViolinPlot(), WafflePlot()

Examples

# \donttest{
data <- data.frame(
  year = rep(2015:2024, 4),
  count = abs(rnorm(40, 50, 15)),
  species = rep(c("A", "B", "C", "D"), each = 10)
)
StreamGraph(data, x = "year", y = "count", group_by = "species")

# }