How to add a ggpubr plot into another plot?

Question

I'm trying to compliment my ggdotchart with the standard deviation from the mean, however, I can not do so in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Therefore I need to change the order of the layers, but I can not get it working.

library(ggpubr)

  # Load data
  data("mtcars")
  dfm <- mtcars
  # Convert the cyl variable to a factor
  dfm$cyl <- as.factor(dfm$cyl)
  # Add the name colums
  dfm$name <- rownames(dfm)


  ggdotchart(dfm, x = "name", y = "mpg",
             color = "cyl",                                # Color by groups
             palette = c("#00AFBB", "#E7B800", "#FC4E07"), # Custom color palette
             sorting = "descending",                       # Sort value in descending order
             add = "segments",                             # Add segments from y = 0 to dots
             rotate = TRUE,                                # Rotate vertically
             group = "cyl",                                # Order by groups
             dot.size = 6,                                 # Large dot size
             label = round(dfm$mpg),                        # Add mpg values as dot labels
             font.label = list(color = "white", size = 9, 
                               vjust = 0.5),               # Adjust label parameters
             ggtheme = theme_pubr()                        # ggplot2 theme
  ) + geom_errorbar(aes(x = name, ymin = mpg - sd(mpg), ymax = mpg + sd(mpg)), position = "identity")

This results in the errorbar over the dots, while I want to have it in behind the dots. I tried to reverse the layers, but couldn't get it working. In normal ggplot it is just changing the order, however, the package makes it difficult to do so.

Insert Layer underneath existing layers in ggplot2 object stackoverflow.com/a/20250185/11477907 — Bruce Schardt

M-- M-- · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-14T20:07:45

While I like the answer in the link, I think it brings a bit of unnecessary complication into play. We can save the plot in whatever order and then change them, instead of concatenating different geoms to our plot.

g$layers[c(4,1,2,3)] -> g$layers

Where g is your plot and the first three layers are from ggdotchart.

_{For the sake of completion:}

If you want to use the solution suggested in the comments it would be:

 g$layers <- c(geom_errorbar(aes(x = name, ymin = mpg - sd(mpg), ymax = mpg + sd(mpg)), 
                             position = "identity"), 
               g$layers)

Here, g is ggdotchart part of your code without geom_errorbar.

How to add a ggpubr plot into another plot?

1 Answers