Setting margin field for axis text in ggplot2

Question

What property, if any, in the ggplotcontrol is the width (or number of spaces) of the axis text?

---

In the example below, my final goal is to “insert” the left side of the upper graph so that it aligns with the lower graph.

I tried theme(plot.margin=..), but it affects the edge of the entire plot.
facet'ing doesn't help either, since the scales on y are different.

As a last resort, I understand that I can change the text of the axis itself, but then I will also need to calculate the cuts for each graph.

Playable example:

library(ggplot2)
library(scales)

D <- data.frame(x=LETTERS[1:5],  y1=1:5, y2=1:5 * 10^6)

P.base <- ggplot(data=D, aes(x=x)) + 
            scale_y_continuous(labels=comma)

Plots <- list(
    short = P.base + geom_bar(aes(y=y1), stat="identity", width=.5)
  , long  = P.base + geom_bar(aes(y=y2), stat="identity", width=.5) 
  )

do.call(grid.arrange, c(Plots, ncol=1, main="Sample Plots"))

Answer 1

Here is one solution.

, 2x1 y-

align_plots1 <- function (...) {
    pl <- list(...)
    stopifnot(do.call(all, lapply(pl, inherits, "gg")))
    gl <- lapply(pl, ggplotGrob)
    bind2 <- function(x, y) gtable:::rbind_gtable(x, y, "first")
    combined <- Reduce(bind2, gl[-1], gl[[1]])
    wl <- lapply(gl, "[[", "widths")
    combined$widths <- do.call(grid::unit.pmax, wl)
    grid::grid.newpage()
    grid::grid.draw(combined)
}

short <- P.base + geom_bar(aes(y=y1), stat="identity", width=.5)
long <- P.base + geom_bar(aes(y=y2), stat="identity", width=.5) 

#Now, align the plots
align_plots1(short, long)

.