The R Graph Gallery Data Visualization Collection

By Yan Holtz, INRA.

Data visualization is one of the key steps of the Data Science Process. There are hundreds of possibilities when it comes to visualizing data – choosing and using the right one is determinant to accurately get your message across. The R programming language is one of the main tools used for this process.

Fig. 1: Hundreds of dataviz possibilities in the R graph gallery

R is fabulous to create charts. It allows you to create every type of visualization and lots of libraries are developed to help users scanning them quicker. However, it can sometimes be hard and extremely frustrating to look for the right code to compute a desired plot.

The R graph gallery is a collection of over 200 R graphics. This website displays them with explanations and reproducible codes, which allow any user to quickly understand the code and apply it to his own dataset. To facilitate the research, charts are classified by type (as boxplot, scatterplot, map or histogram) and a research bar allows you to research a specific R function.

Figure 2: the welcome page of the R graph gallery

Browsing the All graph page is also a good opportunity to find some inspiration about new ways to visualize your data: why not try stream graphs, radar charts or circular plots? If you are already familiar with the basic functions of R, you may have a look at the interactive charts section that contains examples of some of the html widgets. Interactive graphics are really accessible with R and can greatly improve your dataviz skills. Also note that a complete section is dedicated to the popular ggplot2 library.

Moreover the R graph gallery tries to promote data artists. Some people indeed use data and code to produce charts that are irrelevant but that are quite interesting from an aesthetic point of view. You are welcome to send your creations or to recommend the ones of a peer!

Fig. 3: A meaningless chart from the dataArt section

The R graph gallery is quite new and grows fast, notably thanks to the numerous contributors (whom I warmly thank). Please feel free to contact me if you have any suggestions to improve this project or if you detect any malfunctioning. Above all, any new R chart is more than welcome!

Bio: Yan Holtz is a passionate data analyst and bioinformatician currently working for the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA).  He has a special attraction for data visualization which lead him to build the R graph gallery. He can be reached at: yan1166@hotmail.com.