Remove some legend entries in ggplot

Question

I would like to remove some legend entries in my ggplot.

Previously, this was possible by defining the breaks parameter in the relevant scale, as explained here. However, that functionality seems to be broken with a recent update.

Example:

ggplot(mtcars) + 
  
  geom_col(aes(x = 1:nrow(mtcars), y = disp, fill = paste(cyl))) +
  
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("grey50", "grey60", "grey70"),
                    breaks = c("4"))

While this code snippet only diplays one legend item, as intended, it does not allow to control the colours of the non-displayed elements.

With the breaks attribute omitted:

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 20 '21 at 10:22

3

Use a named values argument:

ggplot(mtcars) + 
  geom_col(aes(x = 1:nrow(mtcars), y = disp, fill = paste(cyl))) +
  scale_fill_manual(values = c("4" = "red", "6" = "green", "8" = "blue"),
                    breaks = c("4"))

answered Aug 20 '21 at 10:22

Stéphane Laurent

75,186
15
119
225

Thank you for your reply. How could I implement this if I use a predefined scale such as `scale_fill_viridis_d`? – mzuba Aug 20 '21 at 10:28
@mzuba Simply don't specify the `values` argument in `scale_fill_viridis_d`. – Stéphane Laurent Aug 20 '21 at 10:37

Remove some legend entries in ggplot

1 Answers1