How to Modify the Labels of ggplot2 Plot Legend in R (Example Code)

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to change the item text of a ggplot2 legend in R.

Setting up the Example

data(iris)                     # Load iris data set
head(iris)
#   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
# 1          5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa
# 2          4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa
# 3          4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
# 4          4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa
# 5          5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2  setosa
# 6          5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4  setosa
install.packages("ggplot2")    # Install & load ggplot2 package
library("ggplot2")
my_plot <- ggplot(iris,        # Create default ggplot2 plot
                  aes(x = Sepal.Width,
                      y = Sepal.Length,
                      col = Species)) +
  geom_point()
my_plot                        # Draw ggplot2 plot

r graph figure 1 modify labels ggplot2 legend

Example: Change Legend Labels of ggplot2 Plot Using scale_color_manual Function

my_plot +                      # Modify labels and colors
  scale_color_manual(labels = c("Species A", "Species B", "Species C"),
                     values = c("gray", "orange", "purple"))

r graph figure 2 modify labels ggplot2 legend

Related Tutorials & Further Resources

Have a look at the following R tutorials. They illustrate similar topics as this post:

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