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How can I plot two histograms together in R?

Asked 2010-08-22T13:54:27.283
273

I am using R and I have two data frames: carrots and cucumbers. Each data frame has a single numeric column that lists the length of all measured carrots (total: 100k carrots) and cucumbers (total: 50k cucumbers).

I wish to plot two histograms—carrot length and cucumbers lengths—on the same plot. They overlap, so I guess I also need some transparency. I also need to use relative frequencies not absolute numbers since the number of instances in each group is different.

Something like this would be nice, but how can I create it from my two tables?

Overlapped density

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1 Answer

25

Here is an example of how you can do it in "classic" R graphics:

## generate some random data
carrotLengths <- rnorm(1000,15,5)
cucumberLengths <- rnorm(200,20,7)
## calculate the histograms - don't plot yet
histCarrot <- hist(carrotLengths,plot = FALSE)
histCucumber <- hist(cucumberLengths,plot = FALSE)
## calculate the range of the graph
xlim <- range(histCucumber$breaks,histCarrot$breaks)
ylim <- range(0,histCucumber$density,
              histCarrot$density)
## plot the first graph
plot(histCarrot,xlim = xlim, ylim = ylim,
     col = rgb(1,0,0,0.4),xlab = 'Lengths',
     freq = FALSE, ## relative, not absolute frequency
     main = 'Distribution of carrots and cucumbers')
## plot the second graph on top of this
opar <- par(new = FALSE)
plot(histCucumber,xlim = xlim, ylim = ylim,
     xaxt = 'n', yaxt = 'n', ## don't add axes
     col = rgb(0,0,1,0.4), add = TRUE,
     freq = FALSE) ## relative, not absolute frequency
## add a legend in the corner
legend('topleft',c('Carrots','Cucumbers'),
       fill = rgb(1:0,0,0:1,0.4), bty = 'n',
       border = NA)
par(opar)

The only issue with this is that it looks much better if the histogram breaks are aligned, which may have to be done manually (in the arguments passed to hist).

answered 2010-08-22T15:58:16.260

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