Version Compatibility

Reference examples tested with: patchwork 1.2+ (axes='collect' requires this version, released 2024-01-05), cowplot 1.1+, ggplot2 3.5+, matplotlib 3.8+ (subfigures stable since 3.4).

Before using code patterns, verify installed versions match. If versions differ:

• R: packageVersion('<pkg>') then ?function_name
• Python: pip show <package> then help(module.function)

If code throws ImportError, AttributeError, or TypeError, introspect the installed package and adapt the example to match the actual API rather than retrying.

Multi-Panel Figures

"Combine plots into a multi-panel figure" -> Arrange individual plots into a single composed figure with consistent sizing, shared legends/axes, and panel labels (a, b, c) in the Nature/Cell convention. The decision space: which composition library (patchwork most modern in R; matplotlib subfigures in Python), how to share legends and axes, and how to size at journal specifications.

• R: patchwork (modern; supports axes/guides collection since 1.2), cowplot (older; align_plots), gridExtra (basic grid arrange)
• Python: matplotlib.gridspec.GridSpec, fig.subfigures() (matplotlib 3.4+)

The Single Most Important Modern Insight -- Axes Collection Requires patchwork ≥ 1.2.0