R: What are the pros and cons of using Lattice versus ggplot2? [closed]

Question

R: What are the pros and cons of using Lattice versus ggplot2?

Angers

Answer 1

Love what Roger Peng said when comparing Base/Lattice/gglot2 packages in his ppt: https://github.com/rdpeng/CourseraLectures/blob/master/ggplot2_part1.pptx

Base

1. “Artist’s palette” model
2. Start with blank canvas and build up from there
3. Start with plot function (or similar)
4. Use annotation functions to add/modify (text, lines, points, axis)

Pros:

Convenient, mirrors how we think of building plots and analyzing data

Cons:

1. Can’t go back once plot has started (i.e. to adjust margins);
2. need to plan in advance
3. Difficult to “translate” to others once a new plot has been created (no graphical “language”). Plot is just a series of R commands

Lattice

Plots are created with a single function call (xyplot, bwplot, etc.)

Pros:

1. Most useful for conditioning types of plots: Looking at how y changes with x across levels of z
2. Thinks like margins/spacing set automatically because entire plot is specified at once
3. Good for putting many many plots on a screen

Cons:

1. Sometimes awkward to specify an entire plot in a single function call
2. Annotation in plot is not intuitive
3. Use of panel functions and subscripts difficult to wield and requires intense preparation
4. Cannot “add” to the plot once it’s created

ggplot2

Pros:

1. Split the difference between base and lattice
2. Automatically deals with spacing, text, titles but also allows you to annotate by “adding”
3. Superficial similarity to lattice but generally easier/more intuitive to use
4. Default mode makes many choices for you (but you can customize!)

Indies

Cons of ggplot2: (1) "magic" evaluation model (i.e., very different from base R and other packages, perhaps harder to understand); (2) probably even harder to customize (beyond what the package allows) than lattice; (3) as answered below, no 3-D perspective plots corresponding to persp() [base], wireframe()/cloud() [lattice]; (4) lattice contains some functionality, like banking (aspect ratio control), that is not in ggplot; (5) speed; ggplot is slow compared to lattice, especially for faceting. – Horseback

Answer 2

This is summarized very nicely in a set of blog posts on the Learn R blog.

Intake

Answer 3

ggplot2 currently does not support true 3d surfaces, according to this post:

ggplot2 Version of Figures in “Lattice: Multivariate Data Visualization with R”

Angers