position_dodge: Adjust position by dodging overlaps to the side.

ggplot(mtcars, aes(factor(cyl), fill = factor(vs))) +  geom_bar(position = "dodge")  ggplot(diamonds, aes(price, fill = cut)) +  geom_histogram(position="dodge") # see ?geom_boxplot and ?geom_bar for more examples  # To dodge items with different widths, you need to be explicit df <- data.frame(x=c("a","a","b","b"), y=2:5, g = rep(1:2, 2)) p <- ggplot(df, aes(x, y, group = g)) +  geom_bar(  stat = "identity", position = "dodge",  fill = "grey50", colour = "black"  ) p  # A line range has no width: p + geom_linerange(aes(ymin = y-1, ymax = y+1), position = "dodge") # You need to explicitly specify the width for dodging p + geom_linerange(aes(ymin = y-1, ymax = y+1),  position = position_dodge(width = 0.9))  # Similarly with error bars: p + geom_errorbar(aes(ymin = y-1, ymax = y+1), width = 0.2,  position = "dodge") p + geom_errorbar(aes(ymin = y-1, ymax = y+1, width = 0.2),  position = position_dodge(width = 0.90))