putting mathematical symbols and subscripts mixed

Question

I want to plot a label that looks like this in ggplot2: Value is $\sigma$, R^{2} = 0.6 where Value is is ordinary font, $\sigma$ is a Greek lowercase sigma letter and R^{2} = 0.6 appears as an R with a superscript 2 followed by equal sign (=) followed by 0.6. How can this be used in ggplot factors and in arguments to things like xlab,ylab of R? thanks.

Answer 1

Somewhat more straightforward than paste() might be:

g <- ggplot(data=data.frame(x=0,y=0))+geom_point(aes(x=x,y=y))
g+ xlab( expression(Value~is~sigma~R^{2}==0.6))

Generally paste and all those paired-quotes are not needed if you use the proper plotmath connectives. Even if you want the text that would otherwise create a Greek letter, all you need to do is enclose it in quotes with either a * or ~ on each side. One trouble with offering paste to newcomers to plotmath expressions is that they then think it is the same as paste in the rest of the language.

Answer 2

Something like this :

g <- ggplot(data=data.frame(x=0,y=0))+geom_point(aes(x=x,y=y))
g+ xlab( expression(paste("Value is ", sigma,",", R^{2},'=0.6')))

EDIT

Another option is to use annotate with parse=T:

g+ annotate('text', x = 0, y = 0, 
        label = "Value~is~sigma~R^{2}==0.6 ",parse = TRUE,size=20) 

EDIT

The paste solution may be useful if the constant 0.6 is computed during plotting.

r2.value <- 0.90
g+ xlab( expression(paste("Value is ", sigma,",", R^{2},'=',r2.value)))