maintain desired order of categorical xAxis regardless of data order

highcharter_axis_labelling.R

library(highcharter)
library(tibble)

df <- tibble(
  group = c(rep("G1", 3), rep("G2", 4)),
  cat = c("B", "C", "D", "A", "B", "C", "D"),
  index = c(2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4),
  n = runif(7)
)

# this plots with "B" as the first xAxis label with "A" at the end because of the order of data
hchart(df, "line", hcaes(cat, n, group = group))

# set the xAxis as a numeric index of the desired category then the category as 
# the 'name' argument in hcaes and set xAxis to type category to get desired order
hchart(df, "line", hcaes(index, n, group = group, name = cat)) %>% 
  hc_xAxis(type = "category")