13.1 Introduction

One of the key ideas behind ggplot2 is that it allows you to easily iterate, building up a complex plot a layer at a time. Each layer can come from a different dataset and have a different aesthetic mapping, making it possible to create sophisticated plots that display data from multiple sources.

You’ve already created layers with functions like geom_point() and geom_histogram(). In this chapter, you’ll dive into the details of a layer, and how you can control all five components: data, the aesthetic mappings, the geom, stat, and position adjustments. The goal here is to give you the tools to build sophisticated plots tailored to the problem at hand.