Force R to stop plotting abbreviated axis labels - e.g. 1e+00 in ggplot2

Question

In ggplot2 how can I stop axis labels being abbreviated - e.g. 1e+00, 1e+01 along the x axis once plotted? Ideally, I want to force R to display the actual values which in this case would be 1,10.

Any help much appreciated.

Answer 1

I think you are looking for this:

require(ggplot2)
df <- data.frame(x=seq(1, 1e9, length.out=100), y=sample(100))
# displays x-axis in scientific notation
p  <- ggplot(data = df, aes(x=x, y=y)) + geom_line() + geom_point()
p

# displays as you require
require(scales)
p + scale_x_continuous(labels = comma)

Answer 2

Did you try something like :

options(scipen=10000)

before plotting ?

Answer 3

Just an update to what @Arun made, since I tried it today and it didn't work because it was actualized to

+ scale_x_continuous(labels = scales::comma)

Answer 4

As a more general solution, you can use scales::format_format to remove the scientific notation. This also gives you lots of control around how exactly you want your labels to be displayed, as opposed to scales::comma which only does comma separations of the orders of magnitude.

For example:

require(ggplot2)
require(scales)
df <- data.frame(x=seq(1, 1e9, length.out=100), y=sample(100))

# Here we define spaces as the big separator
point <- format_format(big.mark = " ", decimal.mark = ",", scientific = FALSE)

# Plot it
p  <- ggplot(data = df, aes(x=x, y=y)) + geom_line() + geom_point()
p + scale_x_continuous(labels = point)

Answer 5

There is a solution that don't require scales library.

You can try:

# To deactivate scientific notation on y-axis:

    p + scale_y_continuous(labels = function(x) format(x, scientific = FALSE))

# To activate scientific notation on y-axis:

    p + scale_y_continuous(labels = function(x) format(x, scientific = TRUE))

# To deactivate scientific notation on x-axis:

    p + scale_x_continuous(labels = function(x) format(x, scientific = FALSE))

# To activate scientific notation on x-axis:

    p + scale_x_continuous(labels = function(x) format(x, scientific = TRUE))

Answer 6

Extending the original question to comprise fractions as well, i.e. 1, 0.1, 0.01, 0.001 etc. and avoiding trailing zeros

p + scale_x_continuous(labels = function(x) sprintf("%g", x))

Answer 7

Isn't the simplest general solution to set the penalty that R uses for scientific notation higher?

i.e set scipen() to a number that you are comfortable with.

e.g. If your axis maximum on charts is likely to be 100 000, setting scipen(200000) will ensure that R (and ggplot) will use standard notation for all numbers below 200000 and there will be no requirement to add any lines to the ggplot function.