How to Plot Distribution of Column Values in R

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You can use the following methods to plot a distribution of column values in R:

Method 1: Plot Distribution of Values Using Density Plot

plot(density(df$my_column))

Method 2: Plot Distribution of Values Using Histogram

hist(df$my_column)

The following examples show how to use each method in practice with the following data frame

#create data frame
df = data.frame(team=rep(c('A', 'B'), each=10),
                points=c(3, 3, 4, 5, 4, 7, 7, 7, 10, 11, 8,
                         7, 8, 9, 12, 12, 12, 14, 15, 17))

#view data frame
df

   team points
1     A      3
2     A      3
3     A      4
4     A      5
5     A      4
6     A      7
7     A      7
8     A      7
9     A     10
10    A     11
11    B      8
12    B      7
13    B      8
14    B      9
15    B     12
16    B     12
17    B     12
18    B     14
19    B     15
20    B     17

Example 1: Plot Distribution of Values Using Density Plot

The following code shows how to plot the distribution of values in the points column using a :

#plot distribution of values in points column
plot(density(df$points)) 

This syntax produces a smooth curve that summarizes the distribution of values for a variable.

Note that we can also modify the title, axis labels, and color of the line in the density plot if we’d like:

#plot distribution of values in points column
plot(density(df$points), col='red', main='Density Plot of Points', xlab='Points')

Example 2: Plot Distribution of Values Using Histogram

The following code shows how to plot the distribution of values in the points column using a histogram:

#plot distribution of values in points column using histogram
hist(df$points)

A histogram uses bars to represent frequencies of values in the points column as opposed to a smooth line that summarizes the shape of the distribution.

Note that we can also modify the title, axis labels, color, and number of breaks used in the histogram:

#plot distribution of values in points column using histogram
hist(df$points, main='Histogram of Points', xlab='Points', col='steelblue', breaks=12)

Note: The larger the value you choose for the breaks argument, the more bars there will be in the histogram.

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in R: