R: ggplot display all dates on x axis

Question

I have the following data set

structure(list(Date = structure(c(16636, 16667, 16698, 16728, 
16759, 16789, 16820, 16851, 16880, 16911, 16636, 16667, 16698, 
16728, 16759, 16789, 16820, 16851, 16880, 16911, 16636, 16667, 
16698, 16728, 16759, 16789, 16820, 16851, 16880, 16911, 16636, 
16667, 16698, 16728, 16759, 16789, 16820, 16851, 16880, 16911, 
16636, 16667, 16698, 16728, 16759, 16789, 16820, 16851, 16880, 
16911), class = "Date"), Wheel = structure(c(5L, 5L, 5L, 5L, 
5L, 5L, 5L, 5L, 5L, 5L, 12L, 12L, 12L, 12L, 12L, 12L, 12L, 12L, 
12L, 12L, 9L, 9L, 9L, 9L, 9L, 9L, 9L, 9L, 9L, 9L, 11L, 11L, 11L, 
11L, 11L, 11L, 11L, 11L, 11L, 11L, 6L, 6L, 6L, 6L, 6L, 6L, 6L, 
6L, 6L, 6L), .Label = c("L1", "L2", "L3", "L4", "L5", "L6", "R1", 
"R2", "R3", "R4", "R5", "R6"), class = "factor"), WearRate = c(-0.000367, 
0, 0, 0, 0.001888, 0, -0.00018, 0.000579, -0.000211, 0.000643, 
0.000106, 0, 0, 0, 0.000833, 0, -0.00036, 0.000811, -0.000819, 
0.002044, -0.00029, 0, 0, 0, 0.001666, 0, -0.000348, 0.000888, 
-0.000679, 0.001636, 8.7e-05, 0, 0, 0, 0.000666, 0, -0.000315, 
0.000618, -0.000585, 0.001636, -0.000512, 0, 0, 0, 0.002499, 
0, -0.000247, 0.000734, -9.4e-05, 0.000409)), .Names = c("Date", 
"Wheel", "WearRate"), row.names = 211269:211318, class = "data.frame")

I am trying to make a plot of Date vs WearRate and color by Wheel. The code is as follows:

ggplot(data = df) + geom_point(mapping = aes(x = Date, y = WearRate, color = Wheel))

It works but I want to put actual date labels. How do I do it?

Edit

The plot currently looks as shown here. However, I want to see "Aug 2015", "Sep 2015" etc on X axis and I want to display all the ticks.

Solution 1

The easiest way would be to use scale_x_date

ggplot(data = df) + 
  geom_point(mapping = aes(x = Date, y = WearRate, color = Wheel))+
  scale_x_date(date_labels="%b %y",date_breaks  ="1 month")

%b: Abbreviated month name
%y: Year without century
For a description of the full possibilities see ?strftime()

Solution 2

ggplot(data = df) + 
  geom_point(mapping = aes(x = Date, y = WearRate, color = Wheel))+
  scale_x_date(date_labels="%b %Y", breaks = unique(df$Date))

Comments

[chintan s]

This works but it only shows 3 ticks. I want to display all the ticks.

[Haboryme]

I now shows each month. Lmk if that's how it should be.

[Layheang Song]

I've got the same problem as yours. You may have got the solution, but here I want to share it with the others who are searching for it. It works for my case. I hope it will works for you, too.

[StupidWolf]

I think you can also explain why the unique() works actually and how it's different from the accepted answer

[Layheang Song]

Thank you for your suggestion. unique(0) is for showing only the date where the data exists.