Parallel Coordinates Plot in R

How to create parallel coordinates plots in R with Plotly.

New to Plotly?

Plotly is a free and open-source graphing library for R. We recommend you read our Getting Started guide for the latest installation or upgrade instructions, then move on to our Plotly Fundamentals tutorials or dive straight in to some Basic Charts tutorials.

Adding Dimensions

library(plotly)

fig <- plot_ly(type = 'parcoords', line = list(color = 'blue'),
             dimensions = list(
               list(range = c(1,5),
                    constraintrange = c(1,2),
                    label = 'A', values = c(1,4)),
               list(range = c(1,5),
                    tickvals = c(1.5,3,4.5),
                    label = 'B', values = c(3,1.5)),
               list(range = c(1,5),
                    tickvals = c(1,2,4,5),
                    label = 'C', values = c(2,4),
                    ticktext = c('text 1', 'text 2', 'text 3', 'text 4')),
               list(range = c(1,5),
                    label = 'D', values = c(4,2))
               )
             )

fig

Basic Parallel Cordinates Plot

library(plotly)

df <- read.csv("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bcdunbar/datasets/master/iris.csv")

fig <- df %>% plot_ly(type = 'parcoords',
          line = list(color = ~species_id,
                      colorscale = list(c(0,'red'),c(0.5,'green'),c(1,'blue'))),
          dimensions = list(
            list(range = c(2,4.5),
                 label = 'Sepal Width', values = ~sepal_width),
            list(range = c(4,8),
                 constraintrange = c(5,6),
                 label = 'Sepal Length', values = ~sepal_length),
            list(range = c(0,2.5),
                 label = 'Petal Width', values = ~petal_width),
            list(range = c(1,7),
                 label = 'Petal Length', values = ~petal_length)
            )
          )

fig

Advanced Parallel Coordinates Plot

library(plotly)

df <- read.csv("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bcdunbar/datasets/master/parcoords_data.csv")

fig <- df %>%
  plot_ly(width = 1000, height = 600) 
fig <- fig %>% add_trace(type = 'parcoords',
          line = list(color = ~colorVal,
                      colorscale = 'Jet',
                      showscale = TRUE,
                      reversescale = TRUE,
                      cmin = -4000,
                      cmax = -100),
          dimensions = list(
            list(range = c(~min(blockHeight),~max(blockHeight)),
                 constraintrange = c(100000,150000),
                 label = 'Block Height', values = ~blockHeight),
            list(range = c(~min(blockWidth),~max(blockWidth)),
                 label = 'Block Width', values = ~blockWidth),
            list(tickvals = c(0,0.5,1,2,3),
                 ticktext = c('A','AB','B','Y','Z'),
                 label = 'Cyclinder Material', values = ~cycMaterial),
            list(range = c(-1,4),
                 tickvals = c(0,1,2,3),
                 label = 'Block Material', values = ~blockMaterial),
            list(range = c(~min(totalWeight),~max(totalWeight)),
                 visible = TRUE,
                 label = 'Total Weight', values = ~totalWeight),
            list(range = c(~min(assemblyPW),~max(assemblyPW)),
                 label = 'Assembly Penalty Weight', values = ~assemblyPW),
            list(range = c(~min(HstW),~max(HstW)),
                 label = 'Height st Width', values = ~HstW),
            list(range = c(~min(minHW),~max(minHW)),
                 label = 'Min Height Width', values = ~minHW),
            list(range = c(~min(minWD),~max(minWD)),
                 label = 'Min Width Diameter', values = ~minWD),
            list(range = c(~min(rfBlock),~max(rfBlock)),
                 label = 'RF Block', values = ~rfBlock)
            )
          )


fig

Reference

See https://plotly.com/r/reference/#parcoords for more information and options!

What About Dash?

Dash for R is an open-source framework for building analytical applications, with no Javascript required, and it is tightly integrated with the Plotly graphing library.

Learn about how to install Dash for R at https://dashr.plot.ly/installation.

Everywhere in this page that you see fig, you can display the same figure in a Dash for R application by passing it to the figure argument of the Graph component from the built-in dashCoreComponents package like this:

library(plotly)

fig <- plot_ly() 
# fig <- fig %>% add_trace( ... )
# fig <- fig %>% layout( ... ) 

library(dash)
library(dashCoreComponents)
library(dashHtmlComponents)

app <- Dash$new()
app$layout(
    htmlDiv(
        list(
            dccGraph(figure=fig) 
        )
     )
)

app$run_server(debug=TRUE, dev_tools_hot_reload=FALSE)