Data Visualization in R and Python

Part IStatic Graphics with ggplot (R) and Seaborn (Python)

Grammar of Graphics

The grammar of graphics was cited in the Introduction and will continue to be mentioned in the rest of the text. We see a brief summary here. The concept of grammar of graphics was proposed by Leland Wilkinson in the early 2000s with the idea of creating grammatical, mathematical, and aesthetic rules to define the graphics that were produced by statistical analysis. The different approach, with respect to the fixed definition of chart types composed of stylized reference schemes, is that a graph’s grammar would instead have allowed previously unknown flexibility. In Wilkinson’s definition, seven fundamental components were identified, but the construction by overlapping layers was not yet highlighted. It is Hadley Wickham, core developer of R and ggplot, who in 2010 introduced the layered grammar of graphics, with which Wilkinson’s approach was updated by reviewing the fundamental elements. The definition by levels provides the representation of the data, combining statistics and geometries, two of the fundamental elements, together with positions, aesthetics, scales, a coordinate system, and possibly facets. We will find all these elements in ggplot and Altair, the two graphic libraries organized according to the grammar of graphics considered in this book, as well as in the recent but still preliminary Seaborn Objects interface of Seaborn, the reference graphic library for Python.

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