ggplot2 code for Andy Kirk's article https://www.visualisingdata.com/2019/07/five-ways-to-present-bar-charts/

bar_5_ways.R

library(rvest)
library(tidyverse)

# get the data

url <- "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-streamed_songs_on_Spotify"

df <- url %>% 
  read_html() %>% 
  html_table(fill = TRUE) %>% 
  .[[1]] %>% 
  set_names(nm = c("rank", "song_name", "artist", "album", "streams", "date_published")) %>% 
  mutate(num_rank = parse_number(rank),
         streams_text = case_when(num_rank == 1 ~ paste(streams, "million"),
                                  TRUE ~ streams),
         streams_comma = streams,
         streams = parse_number(streams),
         lab_text = paste(rank, song_name, ", by", artist),
  )

# graph 1

(font_height_bars <- df %>% 
    filter(num_rank <=10) %>% 
    ggplot(aes(x = fct_reorder(lab_text, streams), y = streams)) +
    geom_col(fill = "#00a86b", width = 0.3) +
    coord_flip() +
    theme(text = element_text(family = "Nunito Bold", face = "bold"),
          axis.text = element_text(face = "bold"),
          axis.ticks = element_blank(),
          panel.grid.minor = element_blank(),
          panel.grid.major.y = element_blank(),
          panel.grid.major.x = element_line(color = "lightgrey")) +
    labs(y = "Streams (Millions)",
         x = "") +
    scale_y_continuous(limits = c(0,2300), expand = c(0, 0),
                       breaks = seq(0, 2250, 250)) +
    NULL)

ggsave("font_height_bars.png", font_height_bars, dpi = 1000,
       height = 6, width = 16, units = "in")

# graph 2

(invis_gridline <- df %>% 
  filter(num_rank <=10) %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = fct_reorder(lab_text, streams), y = streams)) +
  geom_col(fill = "#4AA4DE", width = .9) +
  geom_hline(data = data.frame(x = seq(0, 2250, 250)),
             aes(yintercept = x), color = "white", size = 0.5) +
  coord_flip() +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(text = element_text(family = "Nunito Bold", face = "bold"),
        axis.text = element_text(face = "bold"),
        axis.ticks = element_blank(),
        panel.grid = element_blank()) +
  labs(y = "Streams (Millions)",
       x = "") +
  scale_y_continuous(limits = c(0,2300), expand = c(0, 0),
                     breaks = seq(0, 2250, 250)) +
  NULL)

ggsave("invis_gridline.png", invis_gridline, dpi = 1000,
       height = 6, width = 16, units = "in")

#graph 3

(direct_label <- df %>% 
  filter(num_rank <=10) %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = fct_reorder(lab_text, streams), y = streams)) +
  geom_col(fill = "#000034", width = .9) +
  geom_text(aes(x = fct_reorder(lab_text, streams), y = streams, label = streams_text),
            color = "white", hjust = 1, position = position_nudge(y = -20)) +
  coord_flip() +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(text = element_text(family = "Nunito Bold", face = "bold"),
        axis.text = element_text(face = "bold"),
        axis.text.x = element_blank(),
        axis.ticks = element_blank(),
        panel.grid = element_blank()) +
  labs(y = "",
       x = "") +
  scale_y_continuous(limits = c(0,2300), expand = c(0, 0),
                     breaks = seq(0, 2250, 250)) +
  NULL)

ggsave("direct_label.png", direct_label, dpi = 1000,
       height = 6, width = 16, units = "in")

# graph 4

(label_above <- df %>% 
  filter(num_rank <=10) %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = fct_reorder(lab_text, streams), y = streams)) +
  geom_col(fill = "#800000", width = .2) +
  geom_text(aes(x = fct_reorder(lab_text, streams), y = 0, label = lab_text),
            color = "black", hjust = 0, position = position_nudge(x = 0.3),
            fontface = "bold", family = "Nunito Bold") +
  geom_text(aes(x = fct_reorder(lab_text, streams), y = streams, label = streams_text),
            color = "#800000", hjust = 1, position = position_nudge(y = -20, x = 0.3),
            fontface = "bold", family = "Nunito Bold") +
  coord_flip() +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(text = element_text(family = "Nunito Bold", face = "bold"),
        axis.text = element_blank(),
        axis.text.x = element_blank(),
        axis.ticks = element_blank(),
        panel.grid = element_blank()) +
  labs(y = "",
       x = "") +
  scale_y_continuous(limits = c(0,2300), expand = c(0, 0),
                     breaks = seq(0, 2250, 250)) +
  NULL)

ggsave("label_above.png", label_above, dpi = 1000,
       height = 6, width = 12, units = "in")

# graph 5

(lollipop_bar <- df %>% 
  filter(num_rank <=10) %>% 
  ggplot(aes(x = fct_reorder(lab_text, streams), y = streams)) +
  geom_col(fill = "grey", width = .8) +
  geom_point(shape = 21, fill = "orange", color = "black", size = 20, stroke = 1) +
  geom_text(aes(x = fct_reorder(lab_text, streams), y = streams, label = streams_comma),
            color = "black", hjust = 0.5, 
            fontface = "bold") +
  coord_flip() +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(text = element_text(family = "Nunito Bold", face = "bold"),
        axis.text = element_text(face = "bold"),
        axis.text.x = element_blank(),
        axis.ticks = element_blank(),
        panel.grid = element_blank()) +
  labs(y = "",
       x = "") +
  scale_y_continuous(limits = c(0,2350), expand = c(0, 0),
                     breaks = seq(0, 2250, 250)) +
  NULL)

ggsave("lollipop_bar.png", lollipop_bar, dpi = 1000,
       height = 8, width = 12, units = "in")

Wow!