R-style axes with ggplot

Question

Using ggplot, is it possible to get \"R-style\" x/y axes that don\'t meet at the origin and that instead consist of two disconnected ranges, as in the following example?

Answer 1

Try this,

library(ggplot2)

d <- data.frame(x=1:10, y=rnorm(10))

base_breaks_x <- function(x){
  b <- pretty(x)
  d <- data.frame(y=-Inf, yend=-Inf, x=min(b), xend=max(b))
  list(geom_segment(data=d, aes(x=x, y=y, xend=xend, yend=yend), inherit.aes=FALSE),
       scale_x_continuous(breaks=b))
}
base_breaks_y <- function(x){
  b <- pretty(x)
  d <- data.frame(x=-Inf, xend=-Inf, y=min(b), yend=max(b))
  list(geom_segment(data=d, aes(x=x, y=y, xend=xend, yend=yend), inherit.aes=FALSE),
       scale_y_continuous(breaks=b))
}

ggplot(d, aes(x,y)) +
  geom_point() +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(panel.border = element_blank(),
       panel.grid.major = element_blank(),
       panel.grid.minor = element_blank()) +
  base_breaks_x(d$x) +
  base_breaks_y(d$y)

Edit: a related issue has since been discussed in the ggtheme package, and potentially provides a cleaner solution (no need to provide the data explicitly to the breaks function).