Change colors of sunburst plot with R plot_ly

Question

I used plot_ly to visualize my data as sunburst as done before with Adobe Illustrator, however failed to colour the segments likewise.

Here is the code (colour codes are random):

library(plotly)
tab <- data.frame(
  labels = c("Total", "Planerlöse", "Abgeltung", "Bund", "Kanton Thurgau", "Kanton Thurgau Netto", "Gemeinden" ),
  parents = c("", "Total", "Total", "Abgeltung", "Abgeltung", "Kanton Thurgau", "Kanton Thurgau"),
  values = c(100, 46,54, 23.76, 30.24, 20.26, 9.97),
  colors=c("#f28f1c", "#fef4e8", "#2771b0", "#e9f1f7",
           "#b5b5b5", "#787878", "#333333"),
  type = 'sunburst',
  branchvalues = 'total'
)

fig <- plot_ly(tab, labels = ~labels, parents = ~parents, 
                      values = ~values, colors=colors, type = 'sunburst', branchvalues = 'total'
)

fig

And here the original plot I'd like to replicate:

Thanks for any advise and help!

Answer 1

I think the key here is to realise that, somewhat surprisingly, the arcs in a sunburst plot are considered to be markers in the same way as a point in a scatter plot. This means we can style them in the way described in the plotly marker style docs. For example:

# Define marker
marker <- list(
    colors = ~colors,
    line = list(
        color = "black",
        width = 2
    )
)

plot_ly(
    tab,
    labels = ~labels,
    parents = ~parents,
    values = ~values,
    type = "sunburst",
    branchvalues = "total",
    marker = marker # pass the marker here
)

Answer 2

You could add a layout using colorway to add the colors to your sunburst plot like this:

library(plotly)
library(dplyr)

fig <- plot_ly(tab, labels = ~labels, parents = ~parents, 
               values = ~values, type = 'sunburst', branchvalues = 'total'
) %>% layout(colorway = ~colors)

fig

^{Created on 2023-08-07 with reprex v2.0.2}