Axis labels accept plotmath expressions

[dmurdoch]

This is a doc suggestion.

The axis labelling functions like scale_y_continuous() have a labels argument. This argument accepts plotmath expressions, but is not documented to do so.

df <- data.frame(x=1:3, y=c(1,10,100))
library(ggplot2)
ggplot(df, aes(x=x, y=y)) +
  geom_point() +
  scale_y_continuous(breaks=c(1,10,100),
                     labels=expression(10^0, 10^1, 10^2))

The docs say

labels
One of:

• NULL for no labels
• waiver() for the default labels computed by the transformation object
• A character vector giving labels (must be same length as breaks)
• A function that takes the breaks as input and returns labels as output. Also accepts rlang lambda function notation.

I'd add

• An expression vector (must be the same length as breaks). See ?plotmath for details.

[yutannihilation]

Thanks for the suggestion, it sounds good to me. Would you mind contributing a pull request for this? It can be added after here, the line of A character ...:

ggplot2/R/scale-.r

Line 38 in ffcfaf7

#' - A character vector giving labels (must be same length as `breaks`)

[yutannihilation]

Okay, I don't see how that pull request relates here, but I'll wait.

[yutannihilation]

I see.

[clauswilke]

@dmurdoch I'd like to provide some context that hopefully will be helpful.

First, you're of course free to make or not make a PR, and to attach arbitrary conditions on doing so. I just want to make sure we all understand that the ggplot2 maintainers have no control over what happens to a PR in the pkgdown repo. You might as well say you'll make a PR once Nike releases their next series of blue sneakers. Sure, if that's what it takes for you to make a contribution, it is what it is, but all we as ggplot2 maintainers can do then is wait with you for this to happen.

Second, the vast majority of people you're interacting with here in the issue tracker are volunteers that are contributing their free time out of a desire to improve the software. We have very limited bandwidth, and there's always more work that we could do than time we have available. For this reason, we like to encourage new people to come into the space and help out. Documentation is usually a good place to start, because it doesn't require as much knowledge about the inner workings of ggplot2 as some other issues that are currently open.

I have labeled this issue with "good first issue" to indicate that this may be a great opportunity for a new contributor to get their first PR merged.

[yutannihilation]

Thanks for clarifying, Claus.

[dmurdoch]

To all: I've deleted some comments that were unintentionally offensive. Apologies to @yutannihilation. I won't be submitting a PR, so this is still a "good first issue". I provided some text, @yutannihilation found where to put it, so the remaining steps are to insert it, check, and submit the PR.

[yutannihilation]

No worries, Actually, I think I empathize with your frustration. Anyway, thanks for catching and filing this issue :)

[clauswilke]

Thanks all. I'm going to hide all but the first two comments on this issue, so we have a clean report of the problem and a suggested fix.

[thomasp85]

closed by #4640