Collect Axes from Patchwork Compositions

Collects duplicate axes from multiple plots in a patchwork composition, removing redundant axis labels and ticks. This is a convenience wrapper around patchwork's axis collection functionality.

Usage

collect_axes(x, guides = c("collect", "keep"))

align_guides_h(x, guides = c("collect", "keep"))

Arguments

x

A patchwork object created by combining ggplot2 plots.

guides

How to handle guides. Either "collect" to combine into a single legend (default), or "keep" to maintain separate legends.

Value

A patchwork object with collected axes.

Details

This function applies patchwork's axes = "collect" layout option, which removes duplicate axes when plots are stacked or placed side-by-side. For example, in a 2x1 vertical layout, the x-axis labels on the top plot will be removed since they are redundant with the bottom plot's x-axis.

When guides = "collect", legends are also merged into a single shared legend.

For cowplot: Axis alignment in cowplot requires manual use of align_plots with align = "h" or "v". This function does not directly support cowplot objects.

See also

collect_legends, legend_left, legend_wrap

Examples

# \donttest{
library(ggplot2)
library(patchwork)

# Two plots stacked vertically - x-axis is duplicated
p1 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, wt, color = factor(cyl))) +
  geom_point() +
  labs(y = "Weight")
p2 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, hp, color = factor(cyl))) +
  geom_point() +
  labs(y = "Horsepower")

# Without collect_axes: both plots show x-axis
p1 / p2

# With collect_axes: removes redundant x-axis from top plot
collect_axes(p1 / p2)

# Keep separate legends
collect_axes(p1 / p2, guides = "keep")
# }