Adding a density line to a histogram with count data in ggplot2

Question

I want to add a density line (a normal density actually) to a histogram.

Suppose I have the following data. I can plot the histogram by ggplot2:

set.seed(123)    
df <- data.frame(x = rbeta(10000, shape1 = 2, shape2 = 4))

ggplot(df, aes(x = x)) + geom_histogram(colour = "black", fill = "white", 
                                        binwidth = 0.01) 

I can add a density line using:

ggplot(df, aes(x = x)) + 
  geom_histogram(aes(y = ..density..),colour = "black", fill = "white", 
                 binwidth = 0.01) + 
  stat_function(fun = dnorm, args = list(mean = mean(df$x), sd = sd(df$x)))

But this is not what I actually want, I want this density line to be fitted to the count data.

I found a similar post (HERE) that offered a solution to this problem. But it did not work in my case. I need to an arbitrary expansion factor to get what I want. And this is not generalizable at all:

ef <- 100 # Expansion factor

ggplot(df, aes(x = x)) + 
  geom_histogram(colour = "black", fill = "white", binwidth = 0.01) + 
  stat_function(fun = function(x, mean, sd, n){ 
    n * dnorm(x = x, mean = mean, sd = sd)}, 
    args = list(mean = mean(df$x), sd = sd(df$x), n = ef))

Any clues that I can use to generalize this

• first to normal distribution,
• then to any other bin size,
• and lastly to any other distribution will be very helpful.

Answer 1

Fitting a distribution function does not happen by magic. You have to do it explicitly. One way is using fitdistr(...) in the MASS package.

library(MASS)    # for fitsidtr(...)
# excellent fit (of course...)
ggplot(df, aes(x = x)) + 
  geom_histogram(aes(y=..density..),colour = "black", fill = "white", binwidth = 0.01)+
  stat_function(fun=dbeta,args=fitdistr(df$x,"beta",start=list(shape1=1,shape2=1))$estimate)

# horrible fit - no surprise here
ggplot(df, aes(x = x)) + 
  geom_histogram(aes(y=..density..),colour = "black", fill = "white", binwidth = 0.01)+
  stat_function(fun=dnorm,args=fitdistr(df$x,"normal")$estimate)

# mediocre fit - also not surprising...
ggplot(df, aes(x = x)) + 
  geom_histogram(aes(y=..density..),colour = "black", fill = "white", binwidth = 0.01)+
  stat_function(fun=dgamma,args=fitdistr(df$x,"gamma")$estimate)

EDIT: Response to OP's comment.

The scale factor is binwidth ✕ sample size.

ggplot(df, aes(x = x)) + 
  geom_histogram(colour = "black", fill = "white", binwidth = 0.01)+
  stat_function(fun=function(x,shape1,shape2)0.01*nrow(df)*dbeta(x,shape1,shape2),
                args=fitdistr(df$x,"beta",start=list(shape1=1,shape2=1))$estimate)