R: How do I use coord_cartesian on facet_grid with free-ranging axis

Question

Consider some facet_grid plot

mt <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt, colour = factor(cyl))) + geom_point() 
mt + facet_grid(vs ~ am, scales = \"fr         


        

Answer 1

Old post but i was looking for the same thing and couldn't really find anything - [perhaps this is a way Set limits on y axis for two dependent variables using facet_grid()

The solution is not very elegant/efficient but i think it works - basically create two plots with different coord_cartesian calls and swap over the grobs.

# library(ggplot2)
# library(gtable)

# Plot
mt <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt, colour = factor(cyl))) + geom_point() 

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------------


p1 <- mt + facet_grid(vs ~ am, scales = "free") + coord_cartesian(ylim = c(1,6))
g1 <- ggplotGrob(p1)

p2 <- mt + facet_grid(vs ~ am, scales = "free") + coord_cartesian(ylim = c(3,5))
g2 <- ggplotGrob(p2)

# ----------------------------------------------------------
# Replace the upper panels and upper axis of p1 with that of p2
# Tweak panels of second plot - the upper panels
g1[["grobs"]][[6]] <- g2[["grobs"]][[6]]
g1[["grobs"]][[8]] <- g2[["grobs"]][[8]]

#Tweak axis
g1[["grobs"]][[4]] <- g2[["grobs"]][[4]]

grid.newpage()
grid.draw(g1)