scale_continuous function - RDocumentation (2025)

Arguments

name

The name of the scale. Used as the axis or legend title. Ifwaiver(), the default, the name of the scale is taken from the firstmapping used for that aesthetic. If NULL, the legend title will beomitted.

breaks

One of:

• NULL for no breaks

• waiver() for the default breaks computed by thetransformation object

• A numeric vector of positions

• A function that takes the limits as input and returns breaksas output (e.g., a function returned by scales::extended_breaks()).Also accepts rlang lambda function notation.

minor_breaks

One of:

• NULL for no minor breaks

• waiver() for the default breaks (one minor break betweeneach major break)

• A numeric vector of positions

• A function that given the limits returns a vector of minor breaks. Alsoaccepts rlang lambda function notation. Whenthe function has two arguments, it will be given the limits and majorbreaks.

n.breaks

An integer guiding the number of major breaks. The algorithmmay choose a slightly different number to ensure nice break labels. Willonly have an effect if breaks = waiver(). Use NULL to use the defaultnumber of breaks given by the transformation.

labels

One of:

• NULL for no labels

• waiver() for the default labels computed by thetransformation object

• A character vector giving labels (must be same length as breaks)

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

• A function that takes the breaks as input and returns labelsas output. Also accepts rlang lambda functionnotation.

limits

One of:

• NULL to use the default scale range

• A numeric vector of length two providing limits of the scale.Use NA to refer to the existing minimum or maximum

• A function that accepts the existing (automatic) limits and returnsnew limits. Also accepts rlang lambda functionnotation.Note that setting limits on positional scales will remove data outside of the limits.If the purpose is to zoom, use the limit argument in the coordinate system(see coord_cartesian()).

expand

For position scales, a vector of range expansion constants used to add somepadding around the data to ensure that they are placed some distanceaway from the axes. Use the convenience function expansion()to generate the values for the expand argument. The defaults are toexpand the scale by 5% on each side for continuous variables, and by0.6 units on each side for discrete variables.

oob

One of:

• Function that handles limits outside of the scale limits(out of bounds). Also accepts rlang lambdafunction notation.

• The default (scales::censor()) replaces out ofbounds values with NA.

• scales::squish() for squishing out of bounds values into range.

• scales::squish_infinite() for squishing infinite values into range.

na.value

Missing values will be replaced with this value.

transform

For continuous scales, the name of a transformation objector the object itself. Built-in transformations include "asn", "atanh","boxcox", "date", "exp", "hms", "identity", "log", "log10", "log1p", "log2","logit", "modulus", "probability", "probit", "pseudo_log", "reciprocal","reverse", "sqrt" and "time".

A transformation object bundles together a transform, its inverse,and methods for generating breaks and labels. Transformation objectsare defined in the scales package, and are called transform_<name>. Iftransformations require arguments, you can call them from the scalespackage, e.g. scales::transform_boxcox(p = 2).You can create your own transformation with scales::new_transform().

trans

Deprecated in favour oftransform.

guide

A function used to create a guide or its name. Seeguides() for more information.

position

For position scales, The position of the axis.left or right for y axes, top or bottom for x axes.

sec.axis

sec_axis() is used to specify a secondary axis.

...

Other arguments passed on to scale_(x|y)_continuous()

Examples

Run this code

p1 <- ggplot(mpg, aes(displ, hwy)) + geom_point()p1# Manipulating the default position scales lets you:# * change the axis labelsp1 + scale_x_continuous("Engine displacement (L)") + scale_y_continuous("Highway MPG")# You can also use the short-cut labs().# Use NULL to suppress axis labelsp1 + labs(x = NULL, y = NULL)# * modify the axis limitsp1 + scale_x_continuous(limits = c(2, 6))p1 + scale_x_continuous(limits = c(0, 10))# you can also use the short hand functions `xlim()` and `ylim()`p1 + xlim(2, 6)# * choose where the ticks appearp1 + scale_x_continuous(breaks = c(2, 4, 6))# * choose your own labelsp1 + scale_x_continuous( breaks = c(2, 4, 6), label = c("two", "four", "six"))# Typically you'll pass a function to the `labels` argument.# Some common formats are built into the scales package:set.seed(1)df <- data.frame( x = rnorm(10) * 100000, y = seq(0, 1, length.out = 10))p2 <- ggplot(df, aes(x, y)) + geom_point()p2 + scale_y_continuous(labels = scales::label_percent())p2 + scale_y_continuous(labels = scales::label_dollar())p2 + scale_x_continuous(labels = scales::label_comma())# You can also override the default linear mapping by using a# transformation. There are three shortcuts:p1 + scale_y_log10()p1 + scale_y_sqrt()p1 + scale_y_reverse()# Or you can supply a transformation in the `trans` argument:p1 + scale_y_continuous(transform = scales::transform_reciprocal())# You can also create your own. See ?scales::new_transform

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