geom_label does not work as expected with a stat of "summary" and a label aesthetic variable

[davidhodge931]

geom_label does not work as expected with a stat of "summary".

Instead, you have to use after_stat, which seems inconsistent with the grammar in how the x and y aesthetics are treated where you don't do this.

Could geom_label with a stat of "summary" work with label aesthetic variable?

library(tidyverse)
library(tidyplots)

#doesn't
spendings |>
  ggplot(aes(y = category, x = amount, label = amount)) +
  geom_bar(stat = "summary", fun = \(x) sum(x)) +
  geom_label(stat = "summary", fun = \(x) sum(x)) 
#> Warning: Removed 5 rows containing missing values or values outside the scale range
#> (`geom_label()`).

  
#works
spendings |>
  ggplot(aes(y = category, x = amount, label = after_stat(x))) +
  geom_bar(stat = "summary", fun = \(x) sum(x)) +
  geom_label(stat = "summary", fun = \(x) sum(x))

^{Created on 2025-05-21 with reprex v2.1.1}

[teunbrand]

Hi David, thanks for raising the issue!

seems inconsistent with the grammar

Can you elaborate a little bit on how this is inconsistent?

Could geom_label with a stat of "summary" work with label aesthetic variable?

Generally, we avoid specific interactions between stats and geoms. Especially with stats that are as generic as the summary stat.

[davidhodge931]

Actually rereading the help for stat_summary, and this makes sense - as it doesn't operate on aesthetics other than x or y.

"stat_summary() operates on unique x or y;"

Whoops, I should read the help first!!