Create annotation layers with PLACE

The PLACE clause is the little sibling of the DRAW clause that also creates layers. A layer created with PLACE has no mappings to data, all aesthetics are set using literal values instead.

Clause syntax

The PLACE clause takes just a type and a setting clause, all of them required.

PLACE <layer-type>
    SETTING <parameter/aesthetic> => <value>, ...

Like DRAW, the layer type is required and specifies the type of layer to draw, like point or text. It defines how the remaining settings are interpreted. The main syntax page has a list of all available layer types

Unlike the DRAW clause, the PLACE clause does not support FILTER, PARTITION BY, and ORDER BY clauses since everything is declared inline.

SETTING

SETTING <parameter/aesthetic> => <value>, ...

The SETTING clause can be used for two different things:

• Setting aesthetics: All aesthetics in PLACE layers are specified using literal value, e.g. ‘red’ (as in the color red). Aesthetics that are set will not go through a scale but will use the provided value as-is. You cannot set an aesthetic to a column, only to a literal values. Contrary to DRAW layers, PLACE layers can take multiple literal values in an array.
• Setting parameters: Some layers take additional arguments that control how they behave. Often, but not always, these modify the statistical transformation in some way. An example would be the binwidth parameter in histogram which controls the width of each bin during histogram calculation. This is not a statistical property since it is not related to each record, but to the calculation as a whole.