qqnorm and qqline in ggplot2

Question

Say have a linear model LM that I want a qq plot of the residuals. Normally I would use the R base graphics:

qqnorm(residuals(LM), ylab=\"Residuals\")
qqline         


        

Answer 1

ggplot2 v.3.0.0 now has an qqline stat. From the help page:

df <- data.frame(y = rt(200, df = 5))
p <- ggplot(df, aes(sample = y))
p + stat_qq() + stat_qq_line()

!ggplot2 v3.0.0 Example stats equivalent to qqnorm plus abline]1

Answer 2

Since version 3.0, a stat_qq_line equivalent to the below has found its way into the official ggplot2 code.

---

Old version:

Since version 2.0, ggplot2 has a well-documented interface for extension; so we can now easily write a new stat for the qqline by itself (which I've done for the first time, so improvements are welcome):

qq.line <- function(data, qf, na.rm) {
    # from stackoverflow.com/a/4357932/1346276
    q.sample <- quantile(data, c(0.25, 0.75), na.rm = na.rm)
    q.theory <- qf(c(0.25, 0.75))
    slope <- diff(q.sample) / diff(q.theory)
    intercept <- q.sample[1] - slope * q.theory[1]

    list(slope = slope, intercept = intercept)
}

StatQQLine <- ggproto("StatQQLine", Stat,
    # http://docs.ggplot2.org/current/vignettes/extending-ggplot2.html
    # https://github.com/hadley/ggplot2/blob/master/R/stat-qq.r
    
    required_aes = c('sample'),
    
    compute_group = function(data, scales,
                             distribution = stats::qnorm,
                             dparams = list(),
                             na.rm = FALSE) {
        qf <- function(p) do.call(distribution, c(list(p = p), dparams))
        
        n <- length(data$sample)
        theoretical <- qf(stats::ppoints(n))
        qq <- qq.line(data$sample, qf = qf, na.rm = na.rm)
        line <- qq$intercept + theoretical * qq$slope

        data.frame(x = theoretical, y = line)
    } 
)

stat_qqline <- function(mapping = NULL, data = NULL, geom = "line",
                        position = "identity", ...,
                        distribution = stats::qnorm,
                        dparams = list(),
                        na.rm = FALSE,
                        show.legend = NA, 
                        inherit.aes = TRUE) {
    layer(stat = StatQQLine, data = data, mapping = mapping, geom = geom,
          position = position, show.legend = show.legend, inherit.aes = inherit.aes,
          params = list(distribution = distribution,
                        dparams = dparams,
                        na.rm = na.rm, ...))
}

This also generalizes over the distribution (exactly like stat_qq does), and can be used as follows:

> test.data <- data.frame(sample=rnorm(100, 10, 2)) # normal distribution
> test.data.2 <- data.frame(sample=rt(100, df=2))   # t distribution
> ggplot(test.data, aes(sample=sample)) + stat_qq() + stat_qqline()
> ggplot(test.data.2, aes(sample=sample)) + stat_qq(distribution=qt, dparams=list(df=2)) +
+   stat_qqline(distribution=qt, dparams=list(df=2))

(Unfortunately, since the qqline is on a separate layer, I couldn't find a way to "reuse" the distribution parameters, but that should only be a minor problem.)