How can I use grid to edit a ggplot2 object to add math expressions to facet labels?

Question

I need to put Greek letters into facet labels using facet_wrap() in ggplot2. I found a Link describing the same for facet_grid(). I applied this for my data, using the follo

Answer 1

This example should get you started:

library("ggplot2")
library("grid")

d <- ggplot(iris, aes(Sepal.Length, Sepal.Width)) +
            geom_point() +
            facet_wrap(~Species)
grob <- ggplotGrob(d)
strip_elem <- grid.ls(getGrob(grob, "strip.text.x", grep=TRUE, global=TRUE))$name

grob <- grid::editGrob(grob, strip_elem[1], label=expression(alpha[1]))
grob <- grid::editGrob(grob, strip_elem[2], label=expression(beta^2))
grob <- grid::editGrob(grob, strip_elem[3], label=expression(hat(gamma)))

grid.draw(grob)

Update: this works with ggplot2 version 0.9.3 (although using grid is a fragile way to modify ggplot2 graphics)

grob[["grobs"]][["strip_t.1"]][["children"]][[2]][["label"]] <- expression(alpha[1])
grob[["grobs"]][["strip_t.2"]][["children"]][[2]][["label"]] <- expression(beta^2)
grob[["grobs"]][["strip_t.3"]][["children"]][[2]][["label"]] <- expression(hat(gamma))
grid.draw(grob)