Expand and clip

The coord_*() layer functions offer two useful arguments that work well together: expand and clip.

  • expand sets a buffer margin around the plot, so data and axes don't overlap. Setting expand to 0 draws the axes to the limits of the data.
  • clip decides whether plot elements that would lie outside the plot panel are displayed or ignored ("clipped").

When done properly this can make a great visual effect! We'll use theme_classic() and modify the axis lines in this example.

This exercise is part of the course

Intermediate Data Visualization with ggplot2

View Course

Hands-on interactive exercise

Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.

ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg)) +
  geom_point(size = 2) +
  # Add Cartesian coordinates with zero expansion
  ___ +
  theme_classic()