How to st numerical values to factors

[yoditkebede]

Hi all,

Please refer to the attached document for figures.

Figure 1 :

I have been trying to make a boxplot using ggplot a graph representing the edge density in (y axis) per land cover type (x axis) for 3 different moments in time (fill=Year). After adding the data in r, I saw that year was appearing as a numerical variable, therefore I renamed it precising that it is a factor. But when plotting the graph this information is not taken into account, I should have something like Figure 2.

Figure 2:

Figure 3:

Numerical variable to factor in ggplot_issues.docx

I tried the same kind of graph but per District (so character variable) identified directly as a factor when reading the data, then it works. So what should I do to set the year variable as a factor more than I already did: renaming it by setting it as a factor.

An other thing, as you can see in the attached document figure 3: I get rid of the outliers of the boxplot by plotting them in white...which made them invisible on the white background but how can I do do that more properly...??

[thijsfijen]

The factor per year should be inserted in the geom_boxplot(aes(colour = Year)) and not as fill in ggplot().
For omitting outliers on plots, use outlier.size = NA in geom_boxplot()
EDIT: additionally you can add geom_boxplot(aes(colour = Year, fill = Year)) to fill the boxes with a colour