Chart Recipes

Use a recipe when you know the chart type and want the shortest supported action flow. Each recipe separates the decisions you must provide from the resources, defaults, and guides that ggaction can infer.

Want the reasoning?Use a tutorial for an ordered workflow and explanation of each action. Choosing a chart?Browse complete results before selecting a minimal recipe.

Scatterplot

Compare two quantitative fields and encode a category with color.

createScatterPlot

Line chart

Aggregate values over time and split the result into series.

createLinePlot

Histogram

Bin a quantitative field and count category partitions.

createHistogram

Bar chart

Aggregate ordinal categories and arrange nominal groups side by side.

createBarPlot

Heatmap

Map two discrete fields to cells and a quantitative field to color.

createHeatmap createTextMark encodeText

Cars scatterplot with grouped regression lines and confidence bands

Regression scatterplot

Layer observations, grouped fits, and confidence bands.

createPointMark createRegression

Density area

Estimate grouped distributions and draw baseline-closed areas.

createAreaMark encodeDensity encodeColor

Kenya life expectancy folded into blue and red Horizon bands around 55 years

Horizon chart

Compress a long time series by folding values above and below a baseline.

createAreaMark encodeHorizon editHorizon

Car observations with grouped mean confidence intervals

Error bar

Keep observations visible while summarizing group uncertainty.

createErrorBar

Life expectancy confidence bands with explicit boundaries

Error band

Show interval ribbons with explicit lower and upper boundaries.

createErrorBand

Box plot

Compose quartiles, whiskers, medians, and outlier points.

createBoxPlot

Three violin shapes comparing car acceleration distributions by origin

Violin plot

Compare complete distribution shapes across categories with symmetric or split density areas.

createViolinPlot editDensity

Blue point panel and orange replacement bar panel aligned in one horizontal dashboard

Program composition

Compare distinct child panels, edit their layout, and replace one stable slot.

hconcat editCompositionLayout replaceCompositionChild

Cars scatterplots repeated by origin with one shared cylinder legend

Faceted scatterplot

Repeat a complete point or bar chart by field value.

facet editFacetHeaders editCompositionLayout

Cars of 1970 connected across fuel economy, horsepower, weight, and acceleration axes

Parallel coordinates

Compare multivariate row profiles while retaining row-level identity.

createParallelCoordinates encodeParallelCoordinates

Rose chart

Compare radial magnitudes inside ordered categorical sectors.

createArcMark encodeTheta encodeR

Density gradient strips showing car acceleration distributions by origin

Gradient plot

Compare complete distribution shapes across categories in a compact strip.

createGradientPlot editGradientPlot

Selected film ratings over release years with title annotations

Annotated scatterplot

Attach readable data labels to final point, bar, or rule items.

createTextMark encodeText editTextMark

Three chronological country trajectories through fertility and life expectancy space

Development trajectories

Connect repeated and non-monotonic positions by a separate quantitative order field.

createLineMark encodePathOrder removePathOrder

Every flow begins with createCanvas, createData, and a semantic mark or composite action. Add explicit IDs only when the current program contains more than one compatible resource.

Each recipe labels its primary snippet as runnable. Later snippets revise the named program produced by that primary flow unless they repeat an import and complete setup explicitly.