How to refer to a variable name with spaces?

Question

In ggplot2, how do I refer to a variable name with spaces?

Why do qplot() and ggplot() break when used on variable names with

Answer 1

Something similar was asked on ggplot2 mailing list and Mehmet Gültaş linked to this post. Another way of using strings to construct your ggplot call is through the aes_strings function. Note that you still have to put backticks inside the quotes for the thing to work for variables with spaces.

library(ggplot2)

names(mtcars)[1] <- "em pi dzi"

ggplot(mtcars, aes_string(x = "cyl", y = "`em pi dzi`")) +
  theme_bw() +
  geom_jitter()