s-news
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: whiskers in boxplot - still confused

To: "'liuwang94710@hotmail.com'" <liuwang94710@hotmail.com>, s-news@lists.biostat.wustl.edu
Subject: Re: whiskers in boxplot - still confused
From: "Liaw, Andy" <andy_liaw@merck.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 14:06:12 -0400
I believe boxplots uses "hinges" or "fourths" (the "letter values") instead
of quantiles.  They could be very close, but not necessarily identical.

The definition of "fences" is

lower fence = lower hinge - k * H-spread
upper fence = upper hinge + k * H-spread

where H-spread = upper hinge - lower hinge, and k=1.5 for "inner" fences and
3 for "outer" fences.  The hinges are the edges of the box in the boxplot.

I believe the boxplot uses inner fences.

HTH,
Andy

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Danni Wang [mailto:liuwang94710@hotmail.com] 
> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 1:31 PM
> To: s-news@lists.biostat.wustl.edu
> Subject: [S] whiskers in boxplot - still confused
> 
> 
> Dear Group,
> 
> There are some old discussions about how whiskers are drawn 
> in boxplot( ). But it seems not answer my puzzle.
> 
> According to the help file, whiskers are drawn to the nearest 
> value not beyond a standard span from the quartiles, where 
> the standard space is defined as 1.5(inter-quartiles). 
> 
> So, the whiskers cover a span of 1.5(inter-quartiles). My 
> puzzle is from what quartiles, median, or others?  
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Danni
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> This message was distributed by 
> s-news@lists.biostat.wustl.edu.  To unsubscribe send e-mail 
> to s-news-request@lists.biostat.wustl.edu with the BODY of 
> the message:  unsubscribe s-news
> 


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>