Understanding Sankey Diagrams with the Riverplot Package in R
Sankey diagrams are a powerful visualization tool for showing the flow of energy or information between different nodes. In this article, we will explore how to create Sankey diagrams using the riverplot package in R and address some common issues that users may encounter when working with this package.
Introduction to Sankey Diagrams
A Sankey diagram is a visualization tool that is commonly used in network analysis and flow analysis. It consists of nodes, edges, and labels that represent different values or quantities. The key feature of a Sankey diagram is the flow lines that connect the nodes, which represent the direction and magnitude of the flow between them.
Using the Riverplot Package
The riverplot package in R provides an easy-to-use interface for creating Sankey diagrams. It supports various types of data formats, including data frames with node IDs, edge weights, and label strings.
In this article, we will focus on using the riverplot package to create Sankey diagrams that display nodes’ labels next to the edges.
Modifying the Riverplot Package
To address the issues mentioned in the original question, we need to modify the riverplot package to include node labels next to the edges. The answer provided suggests using the srt argument to adjust the label rotation and positioning.
Adjusting Label Rotation and Positioning
The srt argument in the riverplot function allows us to specify the angle of rotation for the labels. By setting this argument to a small positive value, we can rotate the labels by 90 degrees, making them more readable and easier to interpret.
## Adjusting Label Rotation and Positioning
ret <- list(nodes =
data.frame(ID = LETTERS[1:8], x = c(1,2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 1),
labels = c(NA, NA, "Node C", rep(NA, 4), "Node H"),
stringsAsFactors = FALSE),
styles = list(A = list(col = "#00990099",
lty = 0, textcol = "white"),
H = list(col = "#FF000099", textcol = "white"),
B = list(col = "#00006699", textcol = "white"))) F = list(col = "yellow"), D = list(col = "#00FF0099"))
ret$edges <- data.frame(N1 = c("A", "A", "A", "H", "H", "H",
"B", "B", "C", "C", "C"), N2 =
c("B", "C", "D", "D", "F", "G", "D", "F", "D", "E", "F"),
Value = c(10, 20, 5, 10, 10, 20, 5, 10, 20, 15, 10), stringsAsFactors = F)
rownames(ret$nodes) <- ret$nodes$ID
class(ret) <- c(class(ret), "riverplot")
riverplot(ret, srt = 90)
Creating a Sample Dataset
To create a sample dataset for demonstration purposes, we will use the temp function provided by the riverplot package.
## Creating a Sample Dataset
library(riverplot)
temp <- list(nodes =
data.frame(ID = LETTERS[1:8], x = c(1,2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 1),
labels = c(NA, NA, "Node C", rep(NA, 4), "Node H"),
stringsAsFactors = FALSE),
styles = list(A = list(col = "#00990099",
lty = 0, textcol = "white"),
H = list(col = "#FF000099", textcol = "white"),
B = list(col = "#00006699", textcol = "white"))) F = list(col = "yellow"), D = list(col = "#00FF0099"))
ret$edges <- data.frame(N1 = c("A", "A", "A", "H", "H", "H",
"B", "B", "C", "C", "C"), N2 =
c("B", "C", "D", "D", "F", "G", "D", "F", "D", "E", "F"),
Value = c(10, 20, 5, 10, 10, 20, 5, 10, 20, 15, 10), stringsAsFactors = F)
rownames(ret$nodes) <- ret$nodes$ID
class(ret) <- c(class(ret), "riverplot")
riverplot(ret, srt = 90)
Conclusion
In this article, we explored how to create Sankey diagrams using the riverplot package in R and addressed some common issues that users may encounter when working with this package. By adjusting the label rotation and positioning using the srt argument, we can create more readable and informative Sankey diagrams that display nodes’ labels next to the edges.
I hope this article has been helpful in understanding how to use the riverplot package for creating Sankey diagrams in R.
Last modified on 2023-05-21