Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

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Tuesday, June 7, 2011 by Jon Peltier


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Box and Whisker Charts (Box Plots) are commonly used in the display of statistical analyses. Microsoft Excel

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does not have a built in Box and Whisker chart type, but you can create your own custom Box and Whisker
charts, using stacked bar or column charts and error bars. This tutorial shows how to make box plots, in
vertical or horizontal orientations, in all modern versions of Excel.

Peltier Tech Products that Create


Special Charts in Microsoft Excel

In its simplest form, the box and whisker diagram has a box showing the range from first to third quartiles, and
the median divides this large box, the interquartile range, into two boxes, for the second and third quartiles.
The whiskers span the first quartile, from the second quartile box down to the minimum, and the fourth
quartile, from the third quartile box up to the maximum.

Sample Data and Calculations


To play along at home in Excel 2007 or 2010, download the workbookExcel_2007_Box_Plot_Workbook.xlsx.
Lets use the following simple data set for our tutorial. The values were taken from a normally distributed
population with a mean of 10 and standard deviation of 5. There are four sets of 20 values.
All of these values are positive. If your data set has mixed positive and negative values, this technique
requires major modifications.
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First, insert a bunch of blank rows, and set up a range for calculations. Only the horizontal version of the box
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Disclosure: The author receives a small commission on

First, compute some simple statistics, such as the count, mean, and standard deviation. The formulas used in
column B are shown in column G of the screen shot.

Now lets compute the minimum and maximum, median, and first and third quartiles.

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each item sold through these links.

Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Finally, lets determine which values we need to plot. Our chart has a box for the second quartile, which
shows the difference between median and first quartile calculated above. It has a box for third quartile, which
show the difference between the third quartile calculation and the median. The bottom of the lower box rests
on the first calculated quartile. The down whisker is as long as the first quartile minus the minimum, and the
up whisker is as long as the maximum minus the third quartile.

The offset values are calculated as follows:In my example, I have four categories, Alpha through Delta. I can
divide my horizontal chart into four horizontal strips, numbered from 0 to 4, each containing one box-andwhisker unit. I need to position my average points in the middle of each 1-unit horizontal strip. These will
ultimately go onto a secondary vertical axis which I will have conveniently scaled from 0 to 4. Hence the Y
values I will need are 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5.

Chart Construction
Select the header row of the calculated data, then hold Ctrl while selecting the three rows that include Bottom,
2Q Box, and 3Q Box. This multiple-area range is highlighted in orange below.

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

With this range selected, insert a stacked column chart or a stacked bar chart. Be sure to use the stacked
version, and not the 100% stacked version, of the column or bar chart.

The labels in the bar chart go bottom-to-top. To reverse the labels, select the vertical axis, press Ctrl-1
(numeral one) to open the Format Axis dialog, then check the Categories in Reverse Order box, then under
Horizontal Axis Crosses, select At maximum category.

To add the down whisker, select the Bottom series, then in the Chart Tools > Layout tab, click Error Bars, and
select More Error Bar Options from the bottom of the menu. Choose the Minus direction, select Custom for
Error Amount, and click on Specify Value. Leave the contents of the Positive Error Value box alone (={1}) in
the mini dialog that appears, then clear the Negative Error Value box and select the Whisker- row from the
table (B14:E14). Click OK and Close to get back to Excel. These down error bars (whiskers) extend from
the bottom (left) edge of the 2Q Box downward (leftward) into the Bottom series.

To add the up whisker, select the 3Q Box series,then in the Chart Tools > Layout tab, click Error Bars, and
select More Error Bar Options from the bottom of the menu.Choose the Plus direction,select Custom for
Error Amount, and click on Specify Value. Leave the contents of the Negative Error Value box alone (=
{1})in the mini dialog that appears, then clear the Positive Error Value box and select the Whisker+ row from
the table (B15:E15).Click OK and Close to get back to Excel.
These up error bars (whiskers) extendupward (rightward) from the top (right) of the 3Q Box.

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Now we can format the boxes. Select the Bottom series, and apply no fill and no border, so it is hidden. Then
select each of the 2Q Box and 3Q Box series, and apply a dark border and a light fill.

Adding the Mean


To add the mean as a series of markers, select the Mean row in the calculated range (highlighted in blue). If
you are making a horizontal box plot, hold Ctrl and also select the Offset row (highlighted in green), so both
areas are selected. Copy the selected range.

Select the chart, and use Paste Special to add the data as a new series. If you are making a horizontal box
and whisker diagram, check the Category (X Labels) in First Row box. The Series Names in First Column
box should already be checked.
The new series is added as another column or bar stacked on top of the existing ones.

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Select this new series, then on the Chart Tools > Design tab, click on Change Chart Type. If you are making a
vertical box plot, choose a Line Chart style. If you are making a horizontal box plot, choose an XY Scatter
style.

The points in the horizontal box plot are in reverse order.To change the order of points, select the secondary
vertical axis (right edge of the chart), press Ctrl-1 (numeral one) to open the Format Axis dialog, then check
the Values in Reverse Order box.

If youre making a horizontal box plot in Excel 2003, this last process is a little more involved. Excel draws
both secondary axes, but the vertical one is hidden behind the primary axis with the text labels (below left).
Double click on the secondary horizontal axis (top of chart), and on the scale tab of the Format Axis dialog,
check Value (Y) Axis Crosses at Maximum Value (below right).

Excel 2003, continued: Double click the secondary vertical axis (right of chart), and on the scale tab, check
Values in Reverse Order and uncheck Value (X) Axis Crosses at Maximum Value (below left). Finally,

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

select the secondary horizontal axis (top) and click Delete; Excel will now plot the XY series on the primary
horizontal axis.

All Versions: Now format the mean series: remove the line, and use an appropriate marker of a contrasting
color. If youve made a horizontal box plot, hide the secondary Y axis (right edge of the chart) by choosing no
tick marks, no tick labels, and no line in the Format Axis dialog.

That was easy and didnt take too long.

Peltier Tech Chart Utility


This tutorial shows how to create Box and Whisker
Charts in Excel, including the calculations and
specialized data layout needed, and the detailed
combination of chart series and chart types required.
This manual process takes a little time, can be prone
to error, and becomes tedious.
I have created the Peltier Tech Chart Utility for
Excel to create Box Plots (and many other custom
charts) automatically from raw data. This utility, a
standard Excel add-in, lays out data in the required
layout, then constructs a chart with the right
combination of chart types. This is a commercial
product, tested on hundreds of machines in a wide
variety of configurations, which saves time and aggravation.
The Peltier Tech Chart Utility creates box plots in either horizontal or vertical orientation. It provides six
different methods for calculating quartiles. This add-in also provides three styles for the box plots, including
one that shows outliers.
Please visit thePeltier Tech Chart Utility page for more information.

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Posted: Tuesday, June 7th, 2011 under Chart Types.


Tags: Box and Whisker Chart, Box Plot, Statistics.
Comments: 153

Comments
Tamoghna Acharyya says:
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 1:20 pm

Hi Jon!!

Thanks for the post. I am a big fan of you.

M Amjad says:
Monday, June 13, 2011 at 4:13 pm

how we can move secondary Y axis in bottom direction, like for common x-axis, one Y-axis in upward direction
and other Y-axis in downward direction.

Jon Peltier says:


Monday, June 13, 2011 at 8:20 pm

Im not sure what youre doing with the axes. Why do you want two axes, and what are they showing?

robert a says:
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 1:14 pm

I have been enjoying the PTS Box and Whisker in Excel 2003 for the past two years. I now have Excel 2010
how do I add this in? I have tried to reinstall from the zip file.

robert a says:
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 1:23 pm

Actually, after reinstalling it now shows up under Add-Ins.

Wangari Gichiru says:


Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 8:53 am

Thank you so much for this information. This is VERY helpful.

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

David says:
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 7:14 am

i want to draw a graph of one dependent variable having two categories and one continuous independent variable,
what is the appropriate graph?

Jon Peltier says:


Monday, August 15, 2011 at 10:22 am

David
Seems to me you want an XY (Scatter) Chart.

Dorina says:
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 2:01 pm

Perfect! Exactly what i was looking for! Thanks a lot!

Eva Van De Water says:


Monday, September 5, 2011 at 10:07 pm

Thanks a million!

Franziska Lindner says:


Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 4:50 am

I can draw a horizontal boxplot and get the outliers marked as points (using xy scatter plot). However, the outliers
are not in line with the actual boxplot (but above the boxplot if I use y>0 and below, if I use y=0). How can I make
the outliers lie on the same axis as the boxplot.

Thank you so much.

Regards

Franziska

Jon Peltier says:


Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 11:06 am

Franziska
Did you line them up using the same approach I used to align the average markers in this example? The X values
need to be the outlier value, and the Y values use the offset values 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, etc. as shown in the last table
above.

Franziska Lindner says:


Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 12:05 pm

This is so freaky, suddenly its working. Thank you so much I dont know how you did it, but it seems you
persuaded my Excel to be obedient. Thank you :-)

Jon Peltier says:


Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 9:06 am

Franziska
Ha, I wish I had that kind of control over MY Excel!

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Brad says:
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 11:20 am

Can these box plots identify outliers i.e., the asteris beyound the wiskers?

Jon Peltier says:


Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 11:46 am

Brad
Outliers can be displayed on charts such as these, but you need to add more data series, and adjust the lengths
of the whiskers to indicate not min and max data, but data closest to the definition of outlier without being outliers.
The ability to display outliers is built into the Peltier Tech Box and Whisker Chart Utility.

Jhiel says:
Sunday, September 18, 2011 at 7:56 am

Dear Jon,
Thanks for this post, I was able to build a box and whisker plot from scratch because of you. I need some
tweaking however, hope you can still be of help. I need to show the position of outliers (any values outside the
USL / LSL) in the graph also. How it can be done?
thanks,
Jhiel

Jon Peltier says:


Monday, September 19, 2011 at 4:00 pm

Jhiel
First, you have to redefine the length of the whiskers. If you are dealing with outliers, the whisker goes as far as
the farthest point which is not an outlier. Near outliers are more than 1.5 interquartile ranges (third quartile minus
first quartile) outside the first and third quartiles. Far outliers are more than 3 interquartile ranges outside the
quartiles.
Then you need to set up your outlier data. Put the category for each outlier in column 1 of a convenient range (the
first box is category 1, etc.), and put the value into column 2. Copy this range, select the chart, and use paste
special to add this data as a new series. Convert this new series to an XY type, and then assign it to the primary
axis (if Excel moved it to the secondary axis).

andy says:
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 12:19 am

Very helpful, thanks.


A note: I made a vertical box and whisker chart but Excel kept forgetting the plus whisker value. I had to follow
the instructions for the horizontal plot to trick Excel into remembering the plus whisker. BTW, how the heck did
you ever figure out this workaround!? (and the eternal question: why is MS office so buggy?)

Appalanaidu says:
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 9:34 pm

Dear sir,
This is Naidu Ph.D student, before i do not no about Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) how to draw
this diagrams in Excel? why we are using?. But i typed this words in Google then i got your Pelteir tech blog.
Then i learned about various charts like Box plot, cluster stock, Dot plot etc.
Thanking you very much giving this opportunity to all

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

mariam says:
Monday, October 3, 2011 at 10:12 am

thank you so much, finally I did it!


best wishes

brad says:
Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 1:38 pm

huge help. thanks a ton.


I have some borders on the box that are above and below 0. any work around for this? thanks

GP says:
Friday, October 14, 2011 at 4:13 pm

Want to make the plot horizontal, but Excel 2010 doesnt have a Categories in Reverse Order box in the vertical
axis Format Axis box, but only Values in Reverse Order. Any thoughts would be most appreciated.

Jon Peltier says:


Friday, October 14, 2011 at 9:17 pm

The setting is certainly there:

If you already have secondary axes in the chart, you may be trying to format the other vertical axis.

Kelly says:
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 8:47 am

How do you calculate the offset?

Jon Peltier says:


Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 11:20 am

Kelly
In my example, I have four categories, Alpha through Delta. If I scale my secondary vertical axis from 0 to 4, I
need points in the middle of each 1-unit division. Hence 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5.

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

brad says:
Monday, October 31, 2011 at 7:11 am

can you please help find a solution to box values that are both above and below 0? heres an example that is
causing difficulty.
whisker- 7

1q box -11

mid box 6

3q box 5

whisker+ 9
Thanks a ton!

Melissa says:
Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 11:34 am

Hi,
Thanks for the great blog! I was wondering if there is any way of changing the width of the boxes to reflect
different sample sizes per cateorgory?

Sheikh Ali Ahmed says:


Friday, November 18, 2011 at 4:15 am

Hi,
Thank you very much for providing those utmost valuable information regarding different charts in Excel. I have
drawn a box plot using your instruction. It was fun and interesting. But for my data set, I need to convert the box
into standard deviation box. In which the mean value will be middle. And offcourse the whiskers range for upper
and lower values would be as it is.
Please help.
Sheikh Ali Ahmed

Jon Peltier says:


Friday, November 18, 2011 at 8:29 am

It is not advisable to use quantities other than quartiles for box plots. You risk distorting the interpretation of those
who are familiar with the standard box plot construction, causing them to overestimate the variability in the plotted
data (mean 1 sd includes 68% of a population, while the interquartile range includes 50% of the population).
You also risk distorting the future use of box plots by those who are not yet familiar with them.

Youssef RAYADI says:


Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 9:28 am

Thinks a lot
I have one more question please: Its about adding the mean in the Blox Plot
I dont know how to do it.

Gretchen says:
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 5:57 pm

HelloThanks so much for this tutorial, ecstatic that Ive made three box plots from scratch! I was wondering, is
there a way to make just two? (i.e. just the alpha and beta boxes in your example?) The tutorial doesnt seem to
work for this.

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Jon Peltier says:


Friday, December 16, 2011 at 9:36 am

Gretchen
You dont define what isnt working, but I suspect its something like this.
When you first create a chart, Excel counts rows and columns in the source data range, and tries to minimize
series and maximize points per series. You get the following chart, with two series and three categories:

Right click on the chart, select Select Data, and click the Switch Row/Column button, to get the proper starting
chart:

From here, follow the steps to get your two-category box plot:

Anonymous says:
Monday, December 19, 2011 at 4:32 pm

Hi Thanks a lot for posting it. It is a lot helpful. However I am using excel 2007 and when I try to add whisker +,
every error bar will have similar length of barI couldnt know what went wrong there

Jon Peltier says:


Monday, December 19, 2011 at 5:31 pm

Did you do exactly this, which is the instruction for Excel 2007:

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Choose the Plus direction, select Custom for Error Amount, and click on Specify Value. Delete the contents of the
Negative Error Value box in the mini dialog that appears, then clear the Positive Error Value box and select the
Whisker+ row from the table (B15:E15). Click OK and Close to get back to Excel.

dave says:
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 9:30 pm

This is fantastic right until I get to insertion of means. It works perfect in a vertical box plot. But in the horizontal
plot, even when I click on xy scatter style, something is wrong. The line is on the wrong axis, somehow. Anyone
else getting this bug (excel 2007)

Gretchen says:
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 7:31 am

OH Thank you! It worked! Happy Holidays to you and your familyGretchen

Cassy says:
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 6:02 pm

Hello!

Thanks so much for your tutorial, it really came in handy when constructing my charts! I do have a question
though: Are the up and down whiskers equivalent to the min and max for the data sets? Are there box and
whisker charts that use the min and max as the up and down whisker? Basically Im just not sure how to interpret
the up and down whiskers based on the quartile calculations you use to get them.
Thanks!

Cassy

Richees says:
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 4:59 pm

Thanks, very helpful

Kelly says:
Friday, January 13, 2012 at 8:41 am

I have used this site several times, so I appreciate you posting it! I now have to do an analysis with positive and
negative data, and this says that the method would require major modifications. Is there another page that
discusses how to do that? I need to look at chemical sampling data (influent v/s effluent) through a system.
Sometimes the system removes the chemical (positive percent removal) and sometimes it loads the chemical
(negative percent removal). I need to find out if overall it achieves 85% removal. Any thoughts on that? Thanks!

Jon Peltier says:


Friday, January 13, 2012 at 9:19 am

Kelly
Scroll down to Stacked Columns for Positive and Negative Data in Excel Waterfall Charts (Bridge Charts), or visit
the older tutorial at Stacked Column Charts that Cross the X Axis.

Meena says:
Friday, January 13, 2012 at 1:05 pm

Thank you for your easy to follow instructions. I want to put a line across each box and whisker plot for the mean
series (instead of a dot). How do I do that? Thanks.

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Jon Peltier says:


Friday, January 13, 2012 at 3:18 pm

Meena
The simplest is to use the wide dash marker for the data points. Or if you dont need the median, use mean for the
boundary between the two boxes (but this might confuse people who are familiar with box plots, because box
plots were designed to show median, not mean).

Meena says:
Friday, January 13, 2012 at 3:29 pm

Jon,

What is a wide dash marker? My boss wants me to put black dots for all of the data points on the box and whisker
plot. He also wants me to put a single red line (in addition to the black median line) for the mean. I followed your
instructions and plotted a dot for the mean and then drew a red line using shapes in excel before deleting the
orginal dot. The problem is that the line drawn keeps moving. How can I make a line that doesnt move (like the
median line)? Thanks. -M

Jon Peltier says:


Friday, January 13, 2012 at 6:50 pm

Meena
The long dash is the 7th marker in the dropdown list, right above the circle. You can enlarge it by changing the
size, but it gets thicker as well as wider.
Another way to get a line that doesnt move around is to draw a line as youre doing now and format it (size, color,
line thickness, etc.), copy the line, select the series, and paste (Ctrl+V). Then you can delete the line you drew.
This pastes the line as a new custom marker for the series. This technique works for other shapes as well, but
dont get carried away.

Megan says:
Friday, February 3, 2012 at 8:22 pm

Hi John, thanks so much for your tutorial! Im creating a horizontal plot and am having trouble adding the meanI
have eight categories (months) on my y axis and the range of my data on the x axis, and each time I try to add my
mean series by selecting my months and then my offset data points (0.5 4), Excel plots all of my mean values
for the month of May only (my first month). Do you happen to know what I might be doing wrong?
Thank you so much,

Megan

Lily says:
Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 7:27 pm

How do I make only one axses. The examples show two.

Ping says:
Friday, March 16, 2012 at 11:33 am

Hi Jon,
Thank for sharing your expertise knowledge with all of us! I learn a lot from your posts.
I need to generate the Box and Whisker Charts for more than one groups with four categories (like alpha, beta,
gamma, and delta in the example here )for each. I am wondering if it is possible to differentiate the categories
(like green for alpha in all the groups and blue for beta in all the groups, etc.).
Thank you very much for your time and help,

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Ping

Sarah says:
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 10:29 am

Hi, Thank you so much for this tutorial. It has really helped a lot. I have one problem though. When I try plot the
whisker+ excel just puts the same length error bar for each category. I did exactly what you said in the tutorial. My
whisker+ values are 0,0,0,0,0,1 but excel puts each error bar length as 1. I would appreciate any advice on fixing
this.
Thanks so much!

Jon Peltier says:


Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 10:49 am

Sarah
Those are funny whisker lengths for a box plot, but thats not your question.
Adding and setting error bar values is something that many people have a lot of trouble with. While other things
can b done almost exactly like the instructions, the error bars have to be generated exactly exactly as shown.
Remember to use the custom option, and select the entire range containing the error bar values, not just the last
cell.

Jenni says:
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 2:50 pm

These steps were so easy to follow, so thorough, and the explanations were excellent in describing why values
were used where! I am so relieved to find this site to aid in my assignment for school. Thank you so much for
posting this!

xx Jenni

Katie says:
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 11:07 pm

Thank you so much, this was an excellent resource and I was able to use it quite quickly to get some great
whisker plots for a paper. Much appreciated!!!

Marian says:
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 9:04 am

Hi Jon,
thanks for a post. I did not find if you already find a solution, but it seems your instructions and formulae do not
work for number series involving both positive and negative values. I have a data series that range from say -25
to 65. If Q1 is negative, median is positive and Q3 is also positive, than the error line draws from the bottom line
of the Bottom rectangle, i.e. say minnus 2, and not from the top line of the Bottom rectangle as is the case of Q1
being a positive value. I have solved the problem with border calculations for 2Qbox, 3Qbox and Whiskers where
the calculations must look like this: 2Qbox=Abs(median abs(Q1)). Similarly for the whiskers. However, still could
not find a solution how to adjust for the Bottom calculation correctly. I can send you numbers to check, but do not
have your mail. Any suggestion is appreciated.

Marian

Jon Peltier says:


Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 10:17 am

Marian

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

I havent done the write-up for box plots that span positive and negative numbers. For explanations of how to
handle stacked column or bar charts that cross the category axis, scroll down to Stacked Columns for Positive
and Negative Data in Excel Waterfall Charts (Bridge Charts), or visit the older tutorial at Stacked Column Charts
that Cross the X Axis.

Patricia says:
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 10:01 am

What modifications you do when you have negative values?

Jon Peltier says:


Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 8:23 pm

Patricia
You can see what is needed in Stacked Column Charts that Cross the X Axis, and see it applied to waterfall charts
in Excel Waterfall Charts (Bridge Charts).

Peter says:
Sunday, April 15, 2012 at 3:02 am

This is really useful,


I have created 2 diagrams with 5 box and whisker diagrams on each, they have the same x values.

Ive been trying for ages to superimpose the charts by simply copy and pasting one into the other, but excel wont
let me.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Jon Peltier says:


Sunday, April 15, 2012 at 10:27 pm

Superimposing the plots is possible, but is likely to be difficult and problematic to do, and is also likely to result in
something difficult to read.
Instead of 5 categories each in two charts, how about treating the data as 10 categories? Related pairs of data will
be adjacent, so overlapping will not obscure any data.

Patrick Durkin says:


Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 8:04 am

I recent purchased you box-and-whisker plot utility. It works great!


One question, however, involved outliers. I believe that outliers are plotted as points that are over 1.5 x the innerquartile range. That is standard.
Can you give me the criterion for far outliers? Also, could you provide a reference for this?
Thank you,
Pat Durkin

Jon Peltier says:


Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 10:04 am

Patrick
Far outliers exceed 3.0 IQ from the nearest quartiles. Im sitting in an airport right now, so I cant look up a
reference, but Ive seen it in multiple places.

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Ian says:
Friday, April 27, 2012 at 5:04 am

Thanks for the useful, easy to follow instructions. I have now created versions of the winning entry for scenario 2
in DM Reviews 2005 data visualization competition (not sure if I can post a link, but Google Boxes of Insight, its
the first 2 links).
The problem with the whisker+ error bars, where the range keeps on defaulting back is solved in Andys post on
24th Sept 2011.
Follow the instructions for the horizontal plot for this section, and you will get your error bars I did this and it
worked.
Thanks

Ian
PS I and my colleagues keep coming back here to find out how to present and chart data more clearly. We really
appreciate this excellent resource!

Julian says:
Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 8:35 pm

Hi Jon,

Thanks for this great post!

I was trying this on Excel 2010 and I think it is more accurate if instead of selecting the Bottom Row, to select the
Q1 row instead. Also for the Whisker+ plot, it only works if the Negative Error Value box is left as it is ={1},
otherwise for some reason the Positive Error values simply goes back to {1}. Hope that makes sense.

Jon Peltier says:


Monday, April 30, 2012 at 12:20 pm

Julian
I dont know what you mean by instead of selecting the Bottom Row, to select the Q1 row instead. The protocol
says to select the Bottom Series, then add the negative whiskers.
I hadnt noticed how flaky the positive error bars were if you didnt leave ={1} for the negative values. Ive modified
the protocol to suggest not changing the value for the error bar direction which is not shown.

Julian says:
Monday, April 30, 2012 at 6:26 pm

Hi Jon,
Sorry please ignore the first part of my comment. I was referring to the very first part of the chart construction. But
I made a mistake in the Bottom row formula and used = B6 (which is the Min value) instead of using the Q1
values.
Cheers

Amelia Jones says:


Monday, May 7, 2012 at 10:07 am

I need Help with my maths homework but Im a idiot and dont know what the range is in Cumulative Frequency on
a box and whisk diagramIm stuck, Help is needed

Sandra Clapham says:


Friday, May 18, 2012 at 12:03 am

Hi Jon, awesome, detailed work! Thanks for sharing. My attempt to plot two graphs vertically next to one another
worked really well until I came to the whiskers part. For some reason I can not choose different values, i.e. when I
assign my cell B17 as lower value for the data set 1 lower whisker value (through choosing specify error value) it

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automatically assigns the same value to my second data set (which would be the WRONG lower value/ lower
whisker value).
How can I manually assign different whisker values in the specify error box if I have more than one data set in my
graph?
Hope this makes sense. Perhaps you are able to help me? Thanks, Sandra.

Jon Peltier says:


Friday, May 18, 2012 at 8:08 am

Sandra
Are Data Sets 1 and 2 different chart series, or different points in one chart series? I assume from the question
that they are different points in one series.
Put the error values for your data sets (points) into a range of cells, then select this entire range in the custom
values dialog.

Jon Peltier says:


Friday, May 18, 2012 at 8:10 am

Amelia
Its probably too late to help with your homework, but here goes.
The cumulative frequencies in a box plot by definition are the values at 0% (minimum), 25% (the first quartile),
50% (the median), 75% (the third quartile), and 100% (maximum).

Amy says:
Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at 3:53 pm

Im trying to create a box plot with a continuous x variable, but Excel plots it out as if my x variable is categorial (as
in your example: alpha, beta, gamma). I want the plots to be placed to scale with the x variable, how can I do
this?

Jon Peltier says:


Thursday, June 7, 2012 at 6:33 am

Each box/whisker unit shows the distribution of data for one category. These categories are generally not
numerical, and in the Excel charts used to make Box Plots, these categories cannot be treated numerically,
unless those numbers are uniformly spaced whole numbers (i.e., 1, 2, 3, etc.).

Cole says:
Thursday, June 7, 2012 at 10:31 am

Hi Jon
Thanks for the tutorial. I am really awful at this but my boss has asked me to produce a box and whisker diagram
to illustrate the 95 percentile for a number of data sets. Im guessing that the whiskers will illustrate the 5 and 95
percentiles instead of the max and min values but how do I calculate these percentiles and will the upper and
lower quartile values be extracted from these to give the whisker + and values as in the table above. Any help
you could give will be greatly received. Thanks.

ndb says:
Friday, June 15, 2012 at 8:46 am

Im currently trying to do the negative one too, so if you have a solution that would be great

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Fay Watson says:


Sunday, June 17, 2012 at 10:24 pm

Hi John. I seem to have a repetitive problem in that the first bar will not take the whiskers. They appear on the
subsequent bars. Any idea what Im doing wrong?

Fay Watson says:


Sunday, June 17, 2012 at 11:11 pm

Hi Jon, further to this, the whisker caps are showing on the first bar, but not the vertical lines, and the caps are in
the wrong place (on the edge of the quartile bars). Also, if I hover over where the whiskers should show below the
quartile bars, the dialogue box appears telling me what the value at the bottom should be (and says series
bottom Y Error Bars), but the whiskers remain invisible. Does that help? The whiskers are showing on the
subsequent bars which is confusing because the whiskers for all bars should appear at the same time.

Thanks

Jon Peltier says:


Monday, June 18, 2012 at 8:05 am

Fay
Are the values for the first points error bars numerical? It sounds like Excel thinks they are text, and in assigning a
numerical value of zero. Make sure the error bar range you specified starts in the cell you think it does, and make
sure all values are stored in the cells as values.

Greg Vanhoy says:


Monday, June 18, 2012 at 4:39 pm

Works great on positive data. Im not sure what the workaround is for mixed positive and negative data but it does
not seem to be able to handle both negative data.

Joost says:
Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 10:35 am

Many, many, many, many thanks!!!!

Greg Vanhoy says:


Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 4:38 pm

I should have looked at all the comments first. Im optimistic that your solution for positive and negative data will
work. Thanks

vijay antharam says:


Monday, July 2, 2012 at 2:22 pm

Hi Jon

Thank you for your website. I am using your excel box-plot template and it works brilliantly (thank you). But I
would like to know if there is a way to over lay data points over the box-plot to show outliers and the overall
distribution of the data. There are ways to do this using R or Minitab, but I cannot code, and I really dont want to
purchase Minitab right now. Thank you so much.
Respectfully yours,

vijay

Jon Peltier says:


Monday, July 2, 2012 at 2:43 pm

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Hi Vijay
It certainly is possible to plot outliers or even all points over the box plots. In fact, Ive worked out the details for
defining and plotting outliers in my commercial box plotter application. For the denser data in the middle of the
plot, there are also algorithms needed to jitter the points (shuffle them sideways) so you can tell if multiple points
have the same value. I havent done this part, though Im considering an attempt.

Andrew says:
Friday, August 3, 2012 at 1:27 am

When I change the Chart Type for the means to XY Scatter for the horizontal graph, Excel plots the Y value on the
X and the X value on the Y. Im using Excel:mac 2011. Ive tried having my data in both columns and rows, but it
makes no difference.

Jon Peltier says:


Sunday, August 5, 2012 at 9:36 am

Andrew
Are you making a bar chart with horizontal or vertical bars?

Alice says:
Monday, August 13, 2012 at 10:11 am

Thanks, this has saved me a lot of trouble! Really clear instructions, even for a Excel novice like me!

Alba says:
Wednesday, August 15, 2012 at 1:04 pm

Hi,
Thank you for your very usful example of box-plot.
But, I have one doubt!
The central box plot represents the 95% CI or range?

Jon Peltier says:


Wednesday, August 15, 2012 at 4:41 pm

The central box represents the span between the 25th percentile of the data and the 75th percentile. In other
words, its the middle 50% of the data.

Tlou says:
Wednesday, August 22, 2012 at 3:13 am

Hi Jon;

Thank you so much for your tutorial on Box plot, however, i dont seem to get how you inserted mean values as
series. If i try it, the mean values are stacked on the first series. If i try to paste special mean values i get a pop up
menu then for values in (Y) i checked column, then checked categories (X Labels in First row) then OK. Can you
please advise

Jon Peltier says:


Wednesday, August 22, 2012 at 6:53 am

The added series is in fact stacked on the existing series. You then have to change the chart type to a line or XY
type.

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Phil Martin says:


Monday, August 27, 2012 at 7:12 am

Hi!

This site is absolutely fantastic it has been proved itself handy time and time again and is always my 1st port of
call!

I was wondering, howver, if you could provide guidance on how you would design a clustered boxplot chart in
Excel? I have tried to use both the BoxPlot guidance and Cluster-Stack guidance in parallel for this particular
chart design but I just keep getting a bit tripped up along the way.

It would be very useful to have this summarised in some way (or to be provided with a link to somewhere where I
could find this) perhaps an example would be to provide male & female results clustered on the alpha,
beta, gamma and delta used in the example above?

Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.

Anonymous says:
Tuesday, September 4, 2012 at 11:57 pm

Very good presentation

anye wanki says:


Monday, September 10, 2012 at 1:03 am

When I clear the negative values i cant seem to get to whisker row. i have no idea how to find it

Jon Peltier says:


Monday, September 10, 2012 at 1:07 pm

Anye I dont know what your negative numbers refer to.

Michael says:
Thursday, November 1, 2012 at 8:47 am

What is the best way to handle the box plot when the whisker value is >> than the box values. If you go full scale
you squeeze the box. I have read your opinions on broken axis, and even tried a panel chart with the box plots.
Just wanted to get your opinion on the best way to display data like that.

Jon Peltier says:


Thursday, November 1, 2012 at 10:33 am

What is it important to show? Are you comparing this with other boxes in the same chart? If this is the only one
that has such a high value, maybe you can truncate the chart without showing the entire whisker. A panel is going
to be difficult to construct, but you could show two charts side by side.

Michael says:
Friday, November 2, 2012 at 8:18 pm

Unfortunately the majority of my data has the same issues. I was trying to show 5 or 6 box plots side by side. The
max point is important to show but I wanted the audience to also get a feel for the distribution of the data points.
That is why I was drawn to the broken axis for the whisker

Lungi Zuma says:


Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 6:22 am

THank you so much for this, it is so simple to do and it saved me a lot of time!

http://peltiertech.com/excel-box-and-whisker-diagrams-box-plots/[11/08/2015 05:54:17 p.m.]

Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Colin says:
Friday, November 16, 2012 at 8:31 am

Jon,
This post has been so helpful, but Ive fallen over at the final hurdle. Im using Excel 2010 and have a horizontal
box showing the 5th 25th %ile, the middle 50%, and the 75th-95th ile%. There are 44 categories and the
outliers sit on 0% & 100%
I now want to plot the relative position for a single data point in each category (bar). However, no matter how I do
this (X-Y scatter or Line) Exel plots these points across the x axis rather than along the y axis, so that point 1 is
on the extreme left rather than the top of the chart and point 44 is on the extreme right rather than the bottom.
If I add the series to the stacked boxes it does this correctly. If I try and swap rows and columns it does this for the
other series as well.
Dont think it is significant but my data is laid out with categories in rows and series in Columns
I have tried eveyrhting I can around your instructions above but cant make any headway
Any ideas?

Jon Peltier says:


Friday, November 16, 2012 at 12:02 pm

Colin
Sounds like your definitions of the boxes and positions of the outliers are different from standard practice, so you
run the risk of confusing your audience, unless they really know know what youre doing.
Anyway, to plot data points on the chart, you have to remember that X is vertical and Y horizontal for a horizontal
bar chart, but X is horizontal and Y is vertical for points plotted using scatter or line charts (and for this you want
to use a scatter chart series). You have to edit the data for just the one series in the select data dialog or by
editing the series formula.

Laure-Anne says:
Wednesday, November 21, 2012 at 8:55 am

Thank you so much for this! Id been tearing my hair out for weeks and continually have to use workarounds to
present statistical data. Am so happy I could dance!

Naomi says:
Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 11:22 am

Hi, thanks so much for this walkthrough. Very easy to follow and much simpler than what I was trying to come up
with!

Naomi

Sarah says:
Monday, December 10, 2012 at 10:57 am

Hi there, I am wondering if you can help me. I need to make a box and whisker plot in Excel but I am comparing
combinations of drugs. There are two drugs A and B. Drug A has doses 0, 110, 210, 330 and drug B has one
dose 200. There are 8 groups:

Drug A (0) + Drug B;

Drug A(0);

Drug A (110) + Drug B;

Drug A (110);

Drug A (210) + Drug B;

Drug A (210);

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Drug A (330) + Drug B;

Drug A (330).

I need to group these 8 groups into 4 groups comparing

Drug A (0) with or without Drug B;

Drug A (110) with or without Drug B;

Drug A (210) with or without Drug B;

Drug A (330) with or without drug B.

I need to make a box and whisker plot but with 8 box and whiskers but they need to be different colours/shades
within their drug group. I.e there will be a legend saying black box and whisker is with Drug B and grey box and
whisker is without Drug B. Then on x axis will be Drug A doses. Each Drug A dose on Y axis will have two box
and whisker plots, one black and one grey.
If this has made any sense at all please could you let me know how i would go about making a box and whisker
plot like this.
Kind regards,

Sarah.

Sarah says:
Monday, December 10, 2012 at 11:03 am

Hi there,
Sorry ith regards to my previous post I need to correct part of it. I was meant to say Each drug A dose on X axis
will have two box and whisker plots, one black and one grey.
Kind regards,

Sarah.

Duncan says:
Friday, January 18, 2013 at 6:33 am

Hi Jon,

This is by far the clearest and most helpful guide to making these charts on the web, thanks for putting it together.
I hope youre still checking back on this thread, as I have a question Id like your help with.
Why are my whisker lines showing negative values when there are none in my dataset?
The down whisker goes to minus 18, when the lowest number in my Whisker- row is 2. For example, three of my
whisker numbers are 54, 38, and 63, but my down whisker extends to -16, -18, and 22 respectively. Is that
correct? (or do you need to see the dataset to be able to tell?)
Am I misunderstanding what the error bars are displaying?
Likewise, the Upward Whiskers dont quite extend to the Maximum either, but not by the same ratio as the
downwards whiskers..
in your introduction you say
The whiskers span the first quartile, from the second quartile box down to the minimum, and the fourth quartile,
from the third quartile box up to the maximum.
But this isnt what my chart is displaying, the whiskers go further beyond the minimum.
Any help you could offer would be most appreciated. Thanks!

Jon Peltier says:


Friday, January 18, 2013 at 10:21 pm

Duncan

Make sure your formulas correctly subtract the min from the first quartile, to give accurate whisker lengths.

Duncan says:
Monday, January 21, 2013 at 6:11 am

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Hi Jon. thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, my formulas are correct. I really cant tell what I am or am not doing.
Frustrating.

Duncan says:
Monday, January 21, 2013 at 7:35 am

Hi again. I have figured it out! I highlighted the entire row, so Excel was looking at column A for the first error bars
value instead of matching the exact selection of cells for the error bars so the error bar results off-set all the
columns by one, corrupting the values.

Elizabeth says:
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 11:26 pm

Hi Jon

Thank you very much for your website, it has helped me on a number of occasions.

I was wondering if it was possible to create a Box Plot graph similar to the following image:
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a555/EMcNaughton7/Graph_zpse9206dfb.jpg. I was able to create it
singularly for each year but was wanting to sit them beside each other in one graph. If there might be a better
graph to use, Id love to know :)

Thank you Liz

Jon Peltier says:


Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 1:09 pm

Hi Liz

Thats a simple stacked bar chart. Using the data below, insert a stacked (not stacked 100%) bar chart, then
apply some formatting.

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Elizabeth says:
Sunday, February 3, 2013 at 10:47 pm

Hi John
Thank you for the reply to my last post. I created it successfully! :) Thank you.

I have another question. In your Excel_2007_Box_Plot_Workbook.xlsx above, why is Whisker+ a sum of MaxQ3? It doesnt show the largest figure in the data set.
Thank you Liz

Jon Peltier says:


Monday, February 4, 2013 at 8:15 am

The upper whisker by definition is as long as the distance from the third quartile up to the maximum point, hence
Max-Q3. Did you attach the error bars to the appropriate points?

Gavin Lawrence says:


Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 3:37 am

Variable width plots are a useful tool, I would like to be able to capture more of the uncertainty by making the width
of the boxes proportional to the standard deviation.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_plot
Can you show me how to do this please?

Jon Peltier says:


Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 8:38 am

Gavin

These box plots are based on Excels column and bar charts, which do not support more than one bar width.

Eric Wang says:


Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 6:57 pm

Hi Jon, I just wanted to thank you for this very helpful walkthrough and accompanying excel file. I happened to
have negative values for some of my quartiles, but your comments in the stacked column charts guide helped me
with that. Its bizarre to me that excel doesnt have a default method of creating these types of charts, but
nonetheless your guide helped me out. Thanks!

ali says:
Monday, June 24, 2013 at 1:10 pm

Having problems with adding the minus whiskers to negative datasets.


Any insight? Its not working. The minus whisker from the 2nd quartile boxes get tricky, and I cant get rid of it for
the one chart I need a negative 2nd quatile box for.
I really hope that makes sense

Jon Peltier says:


Tuesday, June 25, 2013 at 6:47 am

Ali

If your data contains positive and negative values, you need to do the stacked columns differently. To see how,
scroll down to Stacked Columns for Positive and Negative Data in Excel Waterfall Charts (Bridge Charts), or
visit the older tutorial at Stacked Column Charts that Cross the X Axis. Then what I do is add XY or Line chart
series at the first and third quartile values, hide the markers and lines for these series, and attache the error bars
to thes series.

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Justin Wagner says:


Monday, July 1, 2013 at 3:44 pm

Jon,
Thanks for this wonderful post! You describe the process very nicely and it was super easy to follow.
Keep up the great work.
Justin

Xiaoyi says:
Friday, July 5, 2013 at 12:21 pm

Thank you so much, Jon! That helps a lot. My question is what if the value of the bottom is negative. I tried putting
the error bar to the right position but failed. It always goes from the lower boarder of the bottom box.
Xiaoyi

Jon Peltier says:


Friday, July 5, 2013 at 1:12 pm

Xiaoyi

See my reply to Alis question just above yours.

Parisa says:
Saturday, August 10, 2013 at 7:23 am

Thanks Jon, this was fantastic :-)

Otto A Sanchez says:


Tuesday, August 13, 2013 at 3:13 pm

This works well, except when bottom is negative, then the error bar does not start at the lower end of 2Q but at the
lower end of bottom. Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks

Joao Franco says:


Monday, November 4, 2013 at 9:00 am

Hello John ,

Just found out this excellent tool!


I was wondering if it is possible to create pairs of these box plots with means for two treatments at the same time
in the same graph. Regarding your example would be alpha +; alpha -; beta+; beta and so one.. so we could
graph the pairs and check differences of treatment + and at each vaiable.

Cheers

Joao

Portugal

ati says:
Tuesday, November 5, 2013 at 2:35 pm

hi

this information help me very much! thanks a lot!

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Francis says:
Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 1:08 pm

How do I add new data to a box plot i have already created, if i dont have the original dataset? I have the original
chart only. For example can I add a new year of data by doing the above steps without changing the existing
chart, just adding the new box and whiskers?

Jon Peltier says:


Thursday, November 14, 2013 at 11:11 pm

You have the chart but not the original data. Do you have the calculations based on the original data? If so, you
could add a column, enter the calculations for the added year, then extend the data ranges of each chart series
by one column.

Yus2Aces says:
Monday, January 20, 2014 at 6:41 am

Thank you so much. Your post has helped me accomplished the task my boss gave.

Sireesha says:
Tuesday, January 21, 2014 at 2:57 am

how to check the p value by using man Whitney test

Jon Peltier says:


Tuesday, January 21, 2014 at 6:44 am

Sireesha Try Google.

sepide says:
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 at 8:01 pm

It was very useful for me. thanks a lot.

Moulay says:
Wednesday, February 19, 2014 at 3:17 pm

Almost three years later and this post is still helping people like me! Thanks a bunch!

I remember having used a template that one can use to calculate the quartiles and the rest of the statistics. All I
had to do was to specify where my data were in an Excel 2000 spreadsheet.

It was easy to create too. If possible, one of the Excel gurus can post here.
Thanks.

Anonymous says:
Thursday, March 13, 2014 at 4:08 am

what[ do you do when you have negative numbers?

Jon Peltier says:


Friday, March 14, 2014 at 7:21 am

When the charts must display positive and negative numbers, the formulas and construction of the chart become
more complicated. I describe how to handle this in Stacked Column Charts that Cross the X Axis, and show its
application to waterfall charts in Excel Waterfall Charts (Bridge Charts).

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Sally says:
Saturday, June 21, 2014 at 2:11 am

I refer to this post every time that I have to do a box and whisker diagram, but its also useful for general excel tips
and tricks.
Thanks so much for taking the time to put it together, I very much appreciate it!

Anonymous says:
Friday, August 22, 2014 at 8:12 am

Just perfect description! Thank you so much!

Patrick says:
Wednesday, December 3, 2014 at 11:39 am

Thank you for your tips. They are very useful. Is it possible to build vertical box-and-whisker diagrams using
multiple sets of data (and x-values) on one chart? More specifically, I want to show how three tiers (Tiers A, B, C)
perform across 10 different scenarios. Id like Scenarios 1-10 to be on the x-axis. For each scenario, I want to
show the statistics (the box-and-whisker plot) for each of Tier A, Tier B, and Tier C right next to each other. (For
example, I think the x-values would be something like 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 for Tier A, Tier B, and Tier C, respectively,
for Scenario 1.)

Jon Peltier says:


Wednesday, December 3, 2014 at 12:49 pm

Patrick
I would do this with 30 columns of input data. I would arrange them as 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 2C, etc. If you wanted
to group the boxes more obviously, Id decrease the gap width of the stacked columns, and leave a blank column
between 1C and 2A, between 2C and 3A, etc.
It would look something like this:

Patrick says:
Wednesday, December 3, 2014 at 5:00 pm

Thank you! Much appreciated. Keep up the great work.

Anoul says:
Tuesday, December 23, 2014 at 8:41 am

Thanx, was really helpfull!!

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Excel Box and Whisker Diagrams (Box Plots) - Peltier Tech Blog

Gary says:
Monday, February 2, 2015 at 5:57 pm

i am attempting to add the mean values to a horizontal chart, but i am having trouble with the following instruction:
Select the chart, and use Paste Special to add the data as a new series. If you are making a horizontal box and
whisker diagram, check the Category (X Labels) in First Row box. The Series Names in First Column box
should already be checked.
i am using Excel 2010. I can copy the mean and offset rows, but i dont see a paste special option. If I paste using
the only paste option, my results show different horizontal bars. Also, it dont see the two items in the instructions
in parentheses from the instructions copied above.
What am i missing?

Jon Peltier says:


Monday, February 2, 2015 at 10:28 pm

Go to the Home tab, click the little down arrow for Paste, and select Paste Special.

Adi says:
Saturday, March 14, 2015 at 12:40 am

Hey. May I know how to do outliers at my boxplot? Help me

Jon Peltier says:


Tuesday, March 17, 2015 at 10:24 am

Adi
Outliers complicate a box plot tremendously.
You first need to compute the interquartile ranges (IQ, third quartile minus first quartile) for each category, then
determine the points at each category which are furthest from the boxes but still within 1.5 interquratile ranges
from the boxes. These points define the fences, that is, the ends of the whiskers.
Any points beyond the fences are outliers. You need to plot these points on the chart as XY scatter points, using
the category numbers as X and the values as Y (reverse for horizontal bar chart-based boxes). You may want to
differentiate between near outliers, 1.5 to 3.0 IQ from the boxes, and far outliers, beyond 3.0 IQ.

Trackbacks
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