[r] Explain ggplot2 warning: "Removed k rows containing missing values"

I get this warning when I am trying to generate a plot with ggplot.

After researching online for a while many suggested that my database contains either null values or missing data in general, which was not the case.

In this question the accepted answer says the following:

The warning means that some elements are removed because they fall out of the specified range

I was wondering what exactly does this range refer to and how can someone manually increase this range in order to avoid all warnings?

I ran into this as well, but in the case where I wanted to avoid the extra error messages while keeping the range provided. An option is also to subset the data prior to setting the range, so that the range can be kept however you like without triggering warnings.

library(ggplot2)

range(mtcars$hp)
#> [1]  52 335

# Setting limits with scale_y_continous (or ylim) and subsetting accordingly
## avoid warning messages about removing data
ggplot(data= subset(mtcars, hp<=300 & hp >= 100), aes(mpg, hp)) + 
  geom_point() +
  scale_y_continuous(limits=c(100,300))

Just for the shake of completing the answer given by eipi10.

I was facing the same problem, without using scale_y_continuous nor coord_cartesian.

The conflict was coming from the x axis, where I defined limits = c(1, 30). It seems such limits do not provide enough space if you want to "dodge" your bars, so R still throws the error

Removed 8 rows containing missing values (geom_bar)

Adjusting the limits of the x axis to limits = c(0, 31) solved the problem.

In conclusion, even if you are not putting limits to your y axis, check out your x axis' behavior to ensure you have enough space

Even if your data falls within your specified limits (e.g. c(0, 335)), adding a geom_jitter() statement could push some points outside those limits, producing the same error message.

library(ggplot2)

range(mtcars$hp)
#> [1]  52 335

# No jitter -- no error message
ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, hp)) + 
    geom_point() +
    scale_y_continuous(limits=c(0,335))


# Jitter is too large -- this generates the error message
ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, hp)) + 
    geom_point() +
    geom_jitter(position = position_jitter(w = 0.2, h = 0.2)) +
    scale_y_continuous(limits=c(0,335))
#> Warning: Removed 1 rows containing missing values (geom_point).

^{Created on 2020-08-24 by the reprex package (v0.3.0)}