Arrange n ggplots into lower triangle matrix shape

Question

I have n ggplot objects that will always have the correct number to make a lower triangle of a matrix (no diagonals). How can I arrange them in this order:

1
2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9 10

to form a grid (n = 10 here)?

Here is data to make n plots and how I'd like it to look of I had n = 6.

n <- sample(1:4, 1)
N <- sum(n:1)

library(ggplot2)
theplot <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, hp)) + geom_point()
plots <- lapply(1:N, function(i) theplot)
plots <- mapply(function(x, y) x + ggtitle(y), plots, 
    paste("PLOT", seq_along(plots)), SIMPLIFY=FALSE)

I suspect gridExtra may be useful here but there are blank panes. I'm open to base or add on package ideas.

Answer 1

You can pass a matrix layout to grid.arrange,

library(ggplot2)
library(gridExtra)
plots <- lapply(1:10, function(id) ggplot() + ggtitle(id))

m <- matrix(NA, 4, 4)
m[lower.tri(m, diag = T)] <- 1:10
grid.arrange(grobs = plots, layout_matrix = m)

Answer 2

Here's a fairly painless approach, which shouldn't be too difficult to generalize:

library(gridExtra) ## for grid.arrange()
ng <- nullGrob()
grid.arrange(plots[[1]], ng,         ng,
             plots[[2]], plots[[3]], ng,
             plots[[4]], plots[[5]], plots[[6]])

Answer 3

I was a fan of wq::layOut for arranging ggplots when grid.arrange seems too complicated (though Josh shows that it works just fine here). If you use a new device, you don't have to worry about the holes.

layOut was removed from the wq package, so I include the code here, renamed to lay_out. It's at the bottom, after the usage examples.

lay_out(list(plots[[1]], 1, 1), # each arg is list(plot, row(s), column(s))
       list(plots[[2]], 2, 1),
       list(plots[[3]], 2, 2))

It's main strength is when you have different sized plots.

lay_out(list(plots[[1]], 1, 1:3), 
        list(plots[[2]], 2, 1),
        list(plots[[3]], 2, 2),
        list(plots[[4]], 3, 1:2),
        list(plots[[5]], 2:3, 3))

I think anything you could do with layOut can be done with nested grid.arrange and arrangeGrob calls, but it's often easier to think about this way.

#' Arranging ggplots
#' 
#' Provides a \code{layout}-like interface for arranging ggplots of different 
#' sizes.
#' 
#' @param ... Each argument should be of the form \code{list(plot, rows, 
#' columns)}, where \code{plot} is a ggplot (or similar), and \code{rows} and 
#' \code{columns} are consecutive sequences indicating the row and column 
#' numbers for \code{plot} to span.
#' 
#' @author Alan D. Jassby and James E. Cloern (originally from the \code{wq} 
#' package).
#' 
#' @examples
#' \dontrun{
#' gg <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = hp, y = mpg)) + geom_point()
#' layOut(list(gg, 1:2, 1:3),
#'        list(gg, 3, 1:2),
#'        list(gg, 3, 3))
#' }
#' 
#' @export
lay_out <- function(...) {

    x <- list(...)
    n <- max(sapply(x, function(x) max(x[[2]])))
    p <- max(sapply(x, function(x) max(x[[3]])))
    grid::pushViewport(grid::viewport(layout = grid::grid.layout(n, p)))    

    for (i in seq_len(length(x))) {
        print(x[[i]][[1]],
              vp = grid::viewport(layout.pos.row = x[[i]][[2]], 
                                  layout.pos.col = x[[i]][[3]]))
    }
}