Stacked, overlapping time series plots on a common y-axis with ggplot2

gistfile1.txt

# starting with code from 
# https://gist.github.com/tomhopper/faa24797bb44addeba79?fbclid=IwAR3FFiHpUhTESqi_ylASZP5-zYD0lOrQyyHM2MSEvnVRCIykmjNREGTv4Uk

library(ggplot2)
library(grid)
library(dplyr)

#' Create some data to plot
n <- 100
df <- data.frame(DateTime =  seq(10, 20, length.out = 100),
                 series1 = rnorm(n), 
                 series2a = rnorm(n),
                 series2b = rnorm(n),
                 series3 = rnorm(n))

# the plot at the top
plot1 <- df %>%
  select(DateTime, series1) %>%
  na.omit() %>%
  ggplot() +
  geom_line(aes(x = DateTime, y = series1), size = 0.5, alpha = 0.75, colour = "red") +
  ylab("Red") +
  theme_minimal() +
  scale_y_continuous(position = "right",
                     limits = c(-3,3)) +
  theme(axis.line.y = element_line(color="red", size = 0.5),
        axis.title.x=element_blank(),
        axis.text.x=element_blank(),
        axis.ticks.x=element_blank(),
        panel.grid.minor.y=element_blank(),
        panel.grid.major.y=element_blank(),
        plot.margin=unit(c(0,  # top
                           0,    # right
                           -1,  # bottom
                           0),   # left
                         "cm")) 

# the plots in the middle
plot2a <- df %>%
  select(DateTime, series2a) %>%
  na.omit() %>%
  ggplot() +
  geom_line(aes(x = DateTime, y = series2a), size = 0.5, alpha = 0.75, colour = "green") +
  ylab("Green") +
  theme_minimal() +
  scale_y_continuous(limits = c(-3,3)) +
  theme(axis.line.y = element_line(color="green", size = 0.5),
        axis.title.x = element_blank(),
        axis.text.x=element_blank(),
        axis.ticks.x=element_blank(),
        panel.grid.minor.y=element_blank(),
        panel.grid.major.y=element_blank(),
        plot.margin=unit(c(-1,  # top
                           0,    # right
                           -1,  # bottom
                           0),   # left
                         "cm")) 

# another plot in the middle
plot2b <- df %>%
  select(DateTime, series2b) %>%
  na.omit() %>%
  ggplot() +
  geom_line(aes(x = DateTime, y = series2b), size = 0.5, alpha = 0.75, colour = "yellow") +
  ylab("Yellow") +
  theme_minimal() +
  scale_y_continuous(position = "right",
                     limits = c(-3,3)) +
  theme(axis.line.y = element_line(color="yellow", size = 0.5),
        axis.title.x = element_blank(),
        axis.text.x=element_blank(),
        axis.ticks.x=element_blank(),
        panel.grid.minor.y=element_blank(),
        panel.grid.major.y=element_blank(),
        plot.margin=unit(c(-1,  # top
                           0,    # right
                           -1,  # bottom
                           0),   # left
                         "cm")) 

# the plot at the bottom
plot3 <- df %>%
  select(DateTime, series3) %>%
  na.omit() %>%
  ggplot() +
  geom_line(aes(x = DateTime, y = series3), size = 0.5, alpha = 0.75, colour = "blue") +
  ylab("Blue") +
  xlab("Age (cal k BP)") +
  theme_minimal() +
  scale_y_continuous(limits = c(-3,3)) +
  theme(axis.line.y = element_line(color="blue", size = 0.5),
        axis.title.x = element_blank(),
        panel.grid.minor.y=element_blank(),
        panel.grid.major.y=element_blank(),
        plot.margin=unit(c(0,  # top
                           0,    # right
                           0,  # bottom
                           0),   # left
                         "cm"))

grid.newpage()

grid.draw(rbind(ggplotGrob(plot1), 
                ggplotGrob(plot2a), 
                ggplotGrob(plot2b), 
                ggplotGrob(plot3),
                size = "max")) 

Thanks for this Ben.

I keep encountering the following error after running your code:

Error in mmm < each : comparison of these types is not implemented

Any ideas what is causing this?

Hi Justin, I'm not sure about that error, but my guess is that maybe some of your pkgs are not the most recent releases? I made this where you can run this code in your browser and explore it further: https://rstudio.cloud/project/424276