Change the order of multiple legends in ggplot

Question

HI, how to change the order of multiple legends in ggplot?

Im using below code to build my ggplot.

ggplot(mpg, aes(displ, hwy, col = class)) + geom_point(size = 2,aes(shape = factor(cyl))) + theme(legend.box.background = element_rect(color = "red",fill = "grey"),legend.box.margin = margin(0.4,0.4,0.4,0.4,"cm")) + theme(legend.position = "bottom",legend.box = "vertical")

Answer 1

Hi Radha,

You can change the order of legends in any order using the order attribute within the function of the guide.

Suppose my legends are as below - 

ggplot(mpg, aes(displ, hwy, col = cyl)) + geom_point(size = 2,aes(shape = factor(cyl))) + theme(legend.box.margin = margin(0.3,0.3,0.3,0.3,"cm"),legend.background = element_rect(color = "yellow")) + guides(shape = guide_legend(title = "cyl")) + scale_shape_discrete(labels = c("a","b","c","d")) + theme(legend.position = "bottom")

I change the order using code below - 

ggplot(mpg, aes(displ, hwy, col = cyl)) + geom_point(size = 2,aes(shape = factor(cyl))) + theme(legend.box.margin = margin(0.3,0.3,0.3,0.3,"cm"),legend.background = element_rect(color = "yellow")) + guides(shape = guide_legend(title = "cyl")) + scale_shape_discrete(labels = c("a","b","c","d")) + theme(legend.position = "bottom") + guides(shape = guide_legend(order = 2),col = guide_legend(order = 1))

Comments

How do you keep the continuous legend for cyl while changing the order?