geom_boxplot not displaying correctly

Question

In the assignment I am doing, it wants me to use geom_boxplot. However, I have been unable to get the graph to display the boxplots correctly.

# Convert To Factor
census_data$CIT <- as.factor(census_data$CIT)   
class(census_data$CIT)

ggplot(census_data, aes(census_data[["VALP"]], (census_data[["CIT"]])) +
  geom_boxplot(color = "blue", fill = "orange") +
  ggtitle("Property value by citizenship status") +
  xlab("“Citizenship status") + ylab("Property value")

I am slightly concerned that the CIT may not have been converted correctly to a factor.

Answer 1

I think you have your x and y aesthetics the wrong way around. you have VALP first which is then assumed to be x and CIT second which is asssumed to be y . Given your labels I think you want them in the other order.

I always find it helps to label them explicitly, ie aes(x=.., y=...) so you don't get confused!

You also don't need to use census_data[["VALP"]] in the aes function call, since you have supplied the census_data in the data argument just saying aes(x=CIT, y=VALP) should be enough.