An icicle chart displaying hierarchical data as adjacent rectangles in a layered structure, where each rectangle's size represents its value in the hierarchy. Unlike treemaps that nest rectangles, icicle charts stack them in rows (horizontal) or columns (vertical), making parent-child relationships explicitly visible through spatial adjacency. This layout excels at showing both the hierarchy levels and the proportional values simultaneously.
#' anyplot.ai
#' icicle-basic: Basic Icicle Chart
#' Library: ggplot2 3.5.1 | R 4.4.1
#' Quality: 91/100 | Created: 2026-09-05
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(ragg)
set.seed(42)
# --- Theme tokens -----------------------------------------------------------
THEME <- Sys.getenv("ANYPLOT_THEME", "light")
PAGE_BG <- if (THEME == "light") "#FAF8F1" else "#1A1A17"
INK <- if (THEME == "light") "#1A1A17" else "#F0EFE8"
NEUTRAL <- INK
IMPRINT_PALETTE <- c("#009E73", "#C475FD", "#4467A3", "#BD8233",
"#AE3030", "#2ABCCD", "#954477", "#99B314")
# --- Data: file system hierarchy (folder/file sizes in KB) ------------------
nodes <- tibble::tribble(
~id, ~parent, ~value,
"project", NA, NA,
"src", "project", NA,
"docs", "project", NA,
"tests", "project", NA,
"assets", "project", NA,
"config", "project", NA,
"components", "src", NA,
"utils", "src", NA,
"hooks", "src", NA,
"api", "src", NA,
"guides", "docs", NA,
"api-docs", "docs", NA,
"unit", "tests", NA,
"integration", "tests", NA,
"images", "assets", NA,
"fonts", "assets", NA,
"Button.tsx", "components", 18,
"Modal.tsx", "components", 24,
"Table.tsx", "components", 31,
"format.ts", "utils", 9,
"validate.ts", "utils", 12,
"useAuth.ts", "hooks", 7,
"useFetch.ts", "hooks", 6,
"client.ts", "api", 15,
"routes.ts", "api", 11,
"getting-started.md", "guides", 8,
"deployment.md", "guides", 14,
"endpoints.md", "api-docs", 19,
"Button.test.ts", "unit", 10,
"Table.test.ts", "unit", 13,
"auth.test.ts", "integration", 22,
"logo.svg", "images", 5,
"hero.png", "images", 48,
"Inter.woff2", "fonts", 36,
"ci.yml", "config", 4,
"build.config.js", "config", 6,
"eslint.config.js", "config", 20,
"tsconfig.json", "config", 15
)
# Depth of each node from the root (iterative — resolves one generation per pass)
nodes$depth <- ifelse(is.na(nodes$parent), 0L, NA_integer_)
for (pass in 1:3) {
parent_depth <- setNames(nodes$depth, nodes$id)
pending <- is.na(nodes$depth)
nodes$depth[pending] <- parent_depth[nodes$parent[pending]] + 1L
}
max_depth <- max(nodes$depth)
# Node size = own value for leaves, sum of children for folders (bottom-up)
nodes$size <- nodes$value
for (d in rev(0:(max_depth - 1))) {
for (pid in nodes$id[nodes$depth == d]) {
child_sizes <- nodes$size[nodes$parent == pid & !is.na(nodes$parent)]
if (length(child_sizes) > 0) nodes$size[nodes$id == pid] <- sum(child_sizes)
}
}
# Horizontal extent: each node's width is proportional to its size within
# the span its parent occupies (top-down pass fills children from parents)
nodes$x0 <- NA_real_
nodes$x1 <- NA_real_
nodes$x0[nodes$depth == 0] <- 0
nodes$x1[nodes$depth == 0] <- nodes$size[nodes$depth == 0]
for (d in 0:(max_depth - 1)) {
for (pid in nodes$id[nodes$depth == d]) {
child_idx <- which(nodes$parent == pid)
if (length(child_idx) == 0) next
parent_x0 <- nodes$x0[nodes$id == pid]
parent_x1 <- nodes$x1[nodes$id == pid]
child_sizes <- nodes$size[child_idx]
cum_end <- cumsum(child_sizes) / sum(child_sizes) * (parent_x1 - parent_x0)
nodes$x0[child_idx] <- parent_x0 + c(0, head(cum_end, -1))
nodes$x1[child_idx] <- parent_x0 + cum_end
}
}
# Vertical position: root row at top, deeper levels stack below it
nodes$y1 <- max_depth + 1 - nodes$depth
nodes$y0 <- nodes$y1 - 1
# Branch = the top-level folder each node descends from (root is its own branch)
nodes$branch <- NA_character_
nodes$branch[nodes$depth == 0] <- "root"
for (d in 1:max_depth) {
for (nid in nodes$id[nodes$depth == d]) {
nodes$branch[nodes$id == nid] <- if (d == 1) {
nid
} else {
nodes$branch[nodes$id == nodes$parent[nodes$id == nid]]
}
}
}
px_per_unit <- 3200 / nodes$size[nodes$depth == 0]
nodes <- nodes %>%
mutate(
fill_color = case_when(
branch == "root" ~ NEUTRAL,
branch == "src" ~ IMPRINT_PALETTE[1],
branch == "docs" ~ IMPRINT_PALETTE[2],
branch == "tests" ~ IMPRINT_PALETTE[3],
branch == "assets" ~ IMPRINT_PALETTE[4],
branch == "config" ~ IMPRINT_PALETTE[5]
),
depth_alpha = case_when(
depth <= 1 ~ 1.00,
depth == 2 ~ 0.75,
depth == 3 ~ 0.55
),
label_color = if_else(depth <= 1, PAGE_BG, INK),
width = x1 - x0,
# A label only fits if the rect is wider than its own text at render size —
# avoids the classic icicle/treemap failure mode of text spilling past narrow cells.
char_px = if_else(depth <= 1, 30, 24.3),
required_width = (nchar(id) * char_px * 1.15) / px_per_unit,
show_label = width >= required_width
)
headers <- filter(nodes, show_label, depth <= 1)
leaves <- filter(nodes, show_label, depth > 1)
# Focal point: the single largest terminal file gets an ink outline + bolder
# label so the viewer has one clear "biggest thing" to anchor on.
largest_id <- nodes %>%
filter(!(id %in% nodes$parent)) %>%
slice_max(value, n = 1) %>%
pull(id)
highlight <- filter(nodes, id == largest_id)
leaves_plain <- filter(leaves, id != largest_id)
leaves_focal <- filter(leaves, id == largest_id)
# --- Plot --------------------------------------------------------------------
title_text <- "icicle-basic · r · ggplot2 · anyplot.ai"
p <- ggplot(nodes) +
geom_rect(
aes(xmin = x0, xmax = x1, ymin = y0, ymax = y1,
fill = fill_color, alpha = depth_alpha),
color = PAGE_BG, linewidth = 0.4
) +
geom_rect(
data = highlight,
aes(xmin = x0, xmax = x1, ymin = y0, ymax = y1),
color = INK, fill = NA, linewidth = 1.1
) +
geom_text(
data = headers,
aes(x = (x0 + x1) / 2, y = (y0 + y1) / 2, label = id, color = label_color),
size = 3.2, fontface = "bold"
) +
geom_text(
data = leaves_plain,
aes(x = (x0 + x1) / 2, y = (y0 + y1) / 2, label = id, color = label_color),
size = 2.8
) +
geom_text(
data = leaves_focal,
aes(x = (x0 + x1) / 2, y = (y0 + y1) / 2, label = id, color = label_color),
size = 3.4, fontface = "bold"
) +
scale_fill_identity() +
scale_alpha_identity() +
scale_color_identity() +
scale_x_continuous(expand = c(0, 0)) +
scale_y_continuous(expand = c(0, 0)) +
labs(title = title_text) +
theme_void(base_size = 8) +
theme(
plot.background = element_rect(fill = PAGE_BG, color = PAGE_BG),
panel.background = element_rect(fill = PAGE_BG, color = NA),
plot.title = element_text(color = INK, size = 12, hjust = 0, margin = margin(b = 10)),
plot.margin = margin(t = 14, r = 18, b = 10, l = 18)
)
# --- Save --------------------------------------------------------------------
ggsave(
filename = sprintf("plot-%s.png", THEME),
plot = p,
device = ragg::agg_png,
width = 8,
height = 4.5,
units = "in",
dpi = 400
)
Runnable source as JSON, for any HTTP client: https://api.anyplot.ai/specs/icicle-basic/ggplot2/code. Any spec id and library id listed in llms-full.txt fit the same URL shape; every URL below is complete and callable.
{
"spec_id": "icicle-basic",
"language": "r",
"library": "ggplot2",
"page": "https://anyplot.ai/icicle-basic/r/ggplot2",
"hub": "https://anyplot.ai/icicle-basic",
"code_json": "https://api.anyplot.ai/specs/icicle-basic/ggplot2/code",
"spec_json": "https://api.anyplot.ai/specs/icicle-basic",
"render_light_png": "https://storage.googleapis.com/anyplot-images/plots/icicle-basic/r/ggplot2/plot-light.png",
"render_dark_png": "https://storage.googleapis.com/anyplot-images/plots/icicle-basic/r/ggplot2/plot-dark.png",
"quality_score": 91.0,
"license": "MIT",
"guide": "https://anyplot.ai/llms.txt"
}Part of Basic Icicle Chart on anyplot.ai.