Use ggbreak

[Zepeng-Mu]

Hello, I wonder if tidyplots can work with ggbreak.
I tried add(ggbreak::scale_y_break(c(3, 10))) and got

Error in `class<-`(unlist(lapply(x, as.unit), recursive = FALSE), c("unit",  : 
  attempt to set an attribute on NULL

Thanks!

[pratikrath126]

Hey! The tidyplots package uses its own internal structure to manage plot components, which sometimes conflicts with ggbreak because ggbreak modifies the underlying ggplot object in a way that tidyplots might not expect during the add() call.

To get them to work together, you should try converting the tidyplots object to a standard ggplot object first, then add the break. You can do this by calling the plotting function (like tidyplot()) and then using the + operator instead of add():

library(tidyplots)
library(ggbreak)

# Create the plot and convert to ggplot
p <- your_data %>%
  tidyplot(x, y) %>%
  add_mean_bar() # ... other tidyplots functions

# Now add the break using standard ggplot syntax
p + scale_y_break(c(3, 10))

The add() function in tidyplots expects specific tidyplots components, while ggbreak functions return ggplot-compatible layers/scales that might work better with the standard + operator after the tidyplot object is initialized.

[jbengler]

Dear @Zepeng-Mu

For me this error appears with both add() and +.

It seems that ggbreak is incompatible with ggplots that have absolute dimensions. Most likely because it relies on the patchwork package under the hood.

Lets reproduce the error with plain ggplot2:

library(ggplot2)
library(ggbreak)

# works
mtcars |>
  ggplot(aes(x = factor(cyl), y = mpg, color = factor(cyl))) +
  geom_point() +
  ggbreak::scale_y_break(c(20, 20))

# error
mtcars |>
  ggplot(aes(x = factor(cyl), y = mpg, color = factor(cyl))) +
  geom_point() +
  theme(panel.widths = unit(50, "mm"), panel.heights = unit(50, "mm")) +
  ggbreak::scale_y_break(c(20, 20))

Lets fix the error in tidyplots by freeing the dimensions:

library(tidyplots)
library(ggbreak)

# error
study |>
  tidyplot(x = treatment, y = score, color = treatment) |>
  add_data_points() |>
  add(ggbreak::scale_y_break(c(20, 20)))

# works
study |>
  tidyplot(x = treatment, y = score, color = treatment) |>
  add_data_points() |>
  adjust_size(NA, NA) |>
  add(ggbreak::scale_y_break(c(20, 20)))

Thus, I fear that this can only be fixed by the ggbreak or patchwork maintainers.

Best
Broder