ggplot combining two plots from different data.frames

Question

I want to combine two ggplots, from two different data.frames, into one plot. Below you will find the code. I want to combine plot 1&2 or plots 3&4.

df1 <- data.frame(p=c(10,8,7,3,2,6,7,8),
             v=c(100,300,150,400,450,250,150,400))
df2 <- data.frame(p=c(10,8,6,4), v=c(150,250,350,400))

plot1 <- qplot(df1$v, df1$p)
plot2 <- qplot(df2$v, df2$p, geom="step")

plot3 <- ggplot(df1, aes(v, p)) + geom_point()
plot4 <- ggplot(df2, aes(v, p)) + geom_step()

This must be very easy to do, but somehow I can't get it to work. Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

As Baptiste said, you need to specify the data argument at the geom level. Either

#df1 is the default dataset for all geoms
(plot1 <- ggplot(df1, aes(v, p)) + 
    geom_point() +
    geom_step(data = df2)
)

or

#No default; data explicitly specified for each geom
(plot2 <- ggplot(NULL, aes(v, p)) + 
      geom_point(data = df1) +
      geom_step(data = df2)
)

Answer 2

The only working solution for me, was to define the data object in the geom_line instead of the base object, ggplot.

Like this:

ggplot() + 
geom_line(data=Data1, aes(x=A, y=B), color='green') + 
geom_line(data=Data2, aes(x=C, y=D), color='red')

instead of

ggplot(data=Data1, aes(x=A, y=B), color='green') + 
geom_line() + 
geom_line(data=Data2, aes(x=C, y=D), color='red')

More info here

Answer 3

You can take this trick to use only qplot. Use inner variable $mapping. You can even add colour= to your plots so this will be putted in mapping too, and then your plots combined with legend and colors automatically.

cpu_metric2 <- qplot(y=Y2,x=X1) 

cpu_metric1 <- qplot(y=Y1, 
                    x=X1, 
                    xlab="Time", ylab="%") 

combined_cpu_plot <- cpu_metric1 + 
  geom_line() +
  geom_point(mapping=cpu_metric2$mapping)+
  geom_line(mapping=cpu_metric2$mapping)