# The Order of the Rectangles

#### 2019-09-02

How the strata and lodes at each axis are ordered, and how to control their order, is a complicated but essential part of ggalluvial’s functionality. This vignette explains the motivations behind the implementation and explores the functionality in greater detail than the examples.

## Positioning strata

Each stat layer demarcates one stack for each data collection point and one rectangle within each stack for each (non-empty) category. In ggalluvial terms, the collection points are axes and the rectangles are strata or lodes.

To generate a sequence of stacked bar plots with no connecting flows, only the aesthetics x and stratum are required:

# collection point and category variables only
data <- setNames(toy[, 2:3], c("x", "stratum"))
data$y <- 1 data$PANEL <- 1
# stratum transformation
StatStratum$compute_panel(data) ## x stratum y PANEL ymin ymax ## 2 1 Y 1.0 1 0 2 ## 1 1 X 3.5 1 2 5 ## 4 2 Y 1.5 1 0 3 ## 3 2 X 4.0 1 3 5 ## 6 3 Y 1.5 1 0 3 ## 5 3 X 4.0 1 3 5 ## 8 4 Y 1.5 1 0 3 ## 7 4 X 4.0 1 3 5 Comparing this output to toy, notice first that the data have been aggregated: Each distinct combination of x and stratum occupies only one row. x encodes the axes and is subject to layers specific to this positional aesthetic, e.g. scale_x_*() transformations. ymin and ymax are the lower and upper bounds of the rectangles, and y is their vertical centers. Each stacked rectangle begins where the one below it ends, and their heights are the numbers of subjects (or the totals of their y values, if y is passed a numerical variable) that take the corresponding category value at the corresponding collection point. Here’s the plot this strata-only transformation yields: ggplot(toy, aes(x = collection, stratum = category)) + stat_stratum() + stat_stratum(geom = "text", aes(label = category)) In this vignette, i’ll use the stat_*() functions to add layers, so that the parameters that control their behavior are accessible via tab-completion. ### Reversing the strata Within each axis, stratum defaults to reverse order so that the bars proceed in the original order from top to bottom. This can be overridden by setting reverse = FALSE in stat_stratum(): # stratum transformation with strata in original order StatStratum$compute_panel(data, reverse = FALSE)
##   x stratum   y PANEL ymin ymax
## 1 1       X 1.5     1    0    3
## 2 1       Y 4.0     1    3    5
## 3 2       X 1.0     1    0    2
## 4 2       Y 3.5     1    2    5
## 5 3       X 1.0     1    0    2
## 6 3       Y 3.5     1    2    5
## 7 4       X 1.0     1    0    2
## 8 4       Y 3.5     1    2    5
ggplot(toy, aes(x = collection, stratum = category)) +
stat_stratum(reverse = FALSE) +
stat_stratum(geom = "text", aes(label = category), reverse = FALSE)

The caveat to this is that, if reverse is declared in any layer, then it must be declared in every layer, so that the layers will not be misaligned. This includes any alluvium, flow, and lode layers, since their graphical elements are organized within the bounds of the strata.

### Sorting the strata by size

When the strata are defined by a factor variable, they default to the order of the factor. This can be overridden by the decreasing parameter, which defaults to NA but can be set to TRUE or FALSE to arrange the strata in decreasing or increasing order in the y direction:

# stratum transformation with strata in original order
StatStratum$compute_panel(data, reverse = FALSE) ## x stratum y PANEL ymin ymax ## 1 1 X 1.5 1 0 3 ## 2 1 Y 4.0 1 3 5 ## 3 2 X 1.0 1 0 2 ## 4 2 Y 3.5 1 2 5 ## 5 3 X 1.0 1 0 2 ## 6 3 Y 3.5 1 2 5 ## 7 4 X 1.0 1 0 2 ## 8 4 Y 3.5 1 2 5 ggplot(toy, aes(x = collection, stratum = category)) + stat_stratum(decreasing = TRUE) + stat_stratum(geom = "text", aes(label = category), decreasing = TRUE) The same caveat applies to decreasing as to reverse: Make sure that all layers using alluvial stats are passed the same values! Henceforth, we’ll use the default (reverse and categorical) ordering of the strata themselves. ## Positioning lodes within strata ## Alluvia and flows In the strata-only plot, each subject is represented once at each axis. Alluvia are x-splines that connect these multiple representations of the same subjects across the axes. In order to avoid having these splines overlap at the axes, the alluvium stat must stack the alluvial cohorts—subsets of subjects who have a common profile across all axes—within each stratum. These smaller cohort-specific rectangles are the lodes. This calculation requires the additional alluvium aesthetic, which identifies common subjects across the axes: # collection point, category, and subject variables data <- setNames(toy[, 1:3], c("alluvium", "x", "stratum")) # required fields for stat transformations data$y <- 1
data$PANEL <- 1 # alluvium transformation StatAlluvium$compute_panel(data)
##    alluvium x stratum   y PANEL ymax ymin group
## 1         1 1       Y 0.5     1    1    0     1
## 2         2 1       X 3.5     1    4    3     2
## 3         3 1       X 4.5     1    5    4     3
## 4         4 1       X 2.5     1    3    2     4
## 5         5 1       Y 1.5     1    2    1     5
## 6         1 2       Y 0.5     1    1    0     1
## 7         2 2       X 3.5     1    4    3     2
## 8         3 2       X 4.5     1    5    4     3
## 9         4 2       Y 2.5     1    3    2     4
## 10        5 2       Y 1.5     1    2    1     5
## 11        1 3       Y 2.5     1    3    2     1
## 12        2 3       Y 0.5     1    1    0     2
## 13        3 3       Y 1.5     1    2    1     3
## 14        4 3       X 4.5     1    5    4     4
## 15        5 3       X 3.5     1    4    3     5
## 16        1 4       X 3.5     1    4    3     1
## 17        2 4       Y 0.5     1    1    0     2
## 18        3 4       Y 1.5     1    2    1     3
## 19        4 4       X 4.5     1    5    4     4
## 20        5 4       Y 2.5     1    3    2     5

The transformed data now contain one row per cohort—instead of per category—per collection point. The vertical positional aesthetics describe the lodes rather than the strata, and the group variable encodes the alluvia (a convenience for the geom layer).

Here’s how this transformation translates into the alluvial diagram that began the vignette:

ggplot(toy, aes(x = collection, stratum = category, alluvium = subject)) +
stat_alluvium(aes(fill = class)) +
stat_stratum() +
stat_stratum(geom = "text", aes(label = category))

The flow stat differs from the alluvium stat by allowing the orders of the lodes within strata to differ from one side of an axis to the other. Put differently, the flow stat allows mixing at the axes, rather than requiring that each case or cohort is follows a continuous trajectory from one end of the diagram to the other. As a result, flow diagrams are often much clearer, with the trade-off that cases and cohorts cannot be tracked through them.

# flow transformation
StatFlow\$compute_panel(data)
##    alluvium x stratum PANEL  side   y group ymin ymax
## 15        8 1       Y     1 start 1.0     8    0    2
## 17        9 1       X     1 start 2.5     9    2    3
## 19       10 1       X     1 start 4.0    10    3    5
## 16        8 2       Y     1   end 1.0     8    0    2
## 18        9 2       Y     1   end 2.5     9    2    3
## 20       10 2       X     1   end 4.0    10    3    5
## 9         5 2       Y     1 start 0.5     5    0    1
## 13        7 2       Y     1 start 2.0     7    1    3
## 11        6 2       X     1 start 4.0     6    3    5
## 10        5 3       Y     1   end 0.5     5    0    1
## 12        6 3       Y     1   end 2.0     6    1    3
## 14        7 3       X     1   end 4.0     7    3    5
## 1         1 3       Y     1 start 1.0     1    0    2
## 5         3 3       Y     1 start 2.5     3    2    3
## 3         2 3       X     1 start 3.5     2    3    4
## 7         4 3       X     1 start 4.5     4    4    5
## 2         1 4       Y     1   end 1.0     1    0    2
## 4         2 4       Y     1   end 2.5     2    2    3
## 6         3 4       X     1   end 3.5     3    3    4
## 8         4 4       X     1   end 4.5     4    4    5

The flow stat transformation yields one row per cohort per side per flow. Each interior axis appears twice in the data, once for the incoming flow and once for the outgoing flow. (The starting and ending axes only have rows for outgoing and incoming flows, respectively.) Here is the flow version of the preceding alluvial diagram:

ggplot(toy, aes(x = collection, stratum = category, alluvium = subject)) +
stat_stratum() +
stat_flow(aes(fill = class)) +
stat_stratum(geom = "text", aes(label = category))

Note: The aes.flow parameter tells geom_flow() how flows should inherit differentiation aesthetics from adjacent axes—"forward" or "backward". It does not influence their positions.

### Lode guidance

As the number of strata at each axis grows, heterogeneous cases or cohorts can produce highly complex alluvia and very messy diagrams. ggalluvial mitigates this by strategically arranging the lodes—the intersections of the alluvia with the strata—so as to minimize their crossings between adjacent axes. This strategy is executed locally: Within each axis $$i$$, the order of the lodes is guided by the orders of the strata at all axes, starting with $$i$$ (so that the lodes are actually positioned within the correct strata). The order in which the remaining axes are factored into this calculation is calculated by the lode guidance function. (Because flows do not extend beyond two adjacent axes, the flow stat cannot make use of lode guidance functions.)

A lode guidance function can be passed to the lode.guidance parameter, which defaults to "zigzag". This function puts the nearest (adjacent) axes first, then zigzags outward from there:

for (i in 1:4) print(lode_zigzag(4, i))
## [1] 1 2 3 4
## [1] 2 1 3 4
## [1] 3 4 2 1
## [1] 4 3 2 1

Four alternative lode_*() functions are available: "frontback" and "backfront", which behave like "zigzag" but extend completely in one outward direction from axis $$i$$ before the other; and "forward" and "backward", which put the remaining axes in increasing and decreasing order. Two are illustrated below:

for (i in 1:4) print(lode_backfront(4, i))
## [1] 1 2 3 4
## [1] 2 1 3 4
## [1] 3 2 1 4
## [1] 4 3 2 1
ggplot(toy, aes(x = collection, stratum = category, alluvium = subject)) +
stat_alluvium(aes(fill = class), lode.guidance = "backfront") +
stat_stratum() +
stat_stratum(geom = "text", aes(label = category))

The difference between "backfront" guidance and "zigzag" guidance can be seen in the order of the lodes of the "Y" stratum at axis 3: Whereas "zigzag" minimized the crossings between axes 3 and 4, locating the distinctive class-"one" case above the others, "backfront" minimized the crossings between axes 2 and 3 (axis 2 being immediately before axis 3), locating this case below the others.

for (i in 1:4) print(lode_backward(4, i))
## [1] 1 4 3 2
## [1] 2 4 3 1
## [1] 3 4 2 1
## [1] 4 3 2 1
ggplot(toy, aes(x = collection, stratum = category, alluvium = subject)) +
stat_alluvium(aes(fill = class), lode.guidance = "backward") +
stat_stratum() +
stat_stratum(geom = "text", aes(label = category))

The effect of "backward" guidance is to keep the right part of the diagram as tidy as possible while allowing the left part to become as messy as necessary. ("forward" has the opposite effect.)

### Aesthetic binding

It often makes sense to bundle together the cases and cohorts that fall into common groups used to assign differentiation aesthetics: most commonly fill, but also alpha, which controls the opacity of the fill colors, and colour, linetype, and size, which control the borders of the alluvia, flows, and lodes.

The aes.bind parameter defaults to FALSE; setting it to TRUE prioritizes any such aesthetics after the strata of the current axis and before those of the remaining axes. In the toy example, this results in the lodes within each stratum being sorted first by class:

ggplot(toy, aes(x = collection, stratum = category, alluvium = subject)) +
stat_alluvium(aes(fill = class), aes.bind = TRUE) +
stat_stratum() +
stat_stratum(geom = "text", aes(label = category))

Rather than ordering lodes within, the flow stat separately orders the flows into and out from, each stratum. By default, the flows are ordered with respect first to the orders of the strata at the present axis and second to those at the adjacent axis. In this case, aes.bind = TRUE tells stat_flow() to prioritize flow aesthetics after the present axis and before the adjacent:

ggplot(toy, aes(x = collection, stratum = category, alluvium = subject)) +
stat_flow(aes(fill = class), aes.bind = TRUE) +
stat_stratum() +
stat_stratum(geom = "text", aes(label = category))

### Manual lode ordering

Finally, one may wish to put the lodes at each axis in a predefined order (subject to their being located in the correct strata). This can be done by passing an integer matrix or a list of integer vectors to lode.ordering, which takes the columns or elements to prescribe the order of the cases at the axes. For the toy example, we can use a shortcut—a single vector—to put the cases in the order of their IDs in the data at every axis:

lode_ord <- matrix(1:5, nrow = 5, ncol = 4)
ggplot(toy, aes(x = collection, stratum = category, alluvium = subject)) +
stat_alluvium(aes(fill = class), lode.ordering = lode_ord) +
stat_stratum() +
stat_stratum(geom = "text", aes(label = category))

Within each stratum at each axis, the cases are now in order from bottom to top. ## More examples

More examples of all of the functionality showcased here can be found in the documentation for the stat_*() functions, browsable on the package website.

## Appendix

sessioninfo::session_info()
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##  setting  value
##  version  R version 3.3.3 (2017-03-06)
##  os       macOS  10.13.6
##  system   x86_64, darwin13.4.0
##  ui       X11
##  language (EN)
##  collate  C
##  ctype    en_US.UTF-8
##  tz       <NA>
##  date     2019-09-02
##
## ─ Packages ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
##  package      * version     date       lib
##  assertthat     0.2.1       2019-03-21 [3]
##  backports      1.1.4       2019-04-10 [3]
##  cli            1.1.0       2019-03-19 [3]
##  colorspace     1.4-1       2019-03-18 [3]
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##  digest         0.6.20      2019-07-04 [3]
##  dplyr          0.8.3       2019-07-04 [3]
##  ellipsis       0.2.0.1     2019-07-02 [3]
##  evaluate       0.13        2019-02-12 [3]
##  ggalluvial   * 0.10.0      2019-09-02 [1]
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##  labeling       0.3         2014-08-23 [3]
##  lazyeval       0.2.2       2019-03-15 [3]
##  lifecycle      0.1.0       2019-08-01 [3]
##  magrittr       1.5         2014-11-22 [3]
##  munsell        0.5.0       2018-06-12 [3]
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