Boxplots
Pre-calculated boxplot
Chart setup to build a pre-calculated boxplot:
Axis
Drag the dimension to plot on the axis (e.g., Date: Year, Month).
Values parameter
Drag multiple measures to compare (e.g., Upper Quartile, Lower Quartile, Median, Whisker Max, Whisker Min).
Chart type
Select Boxplot from the Chart Type dropdown menu.
Boxplots are a standardized way of displaying the distribution of data based on a five-number summary: minimum, first quartile (Q1), median (Q2), third quartile (Q3), and maximum. To render a boxplot, you need to add the lower quartile, median, and upper quartile measures.
When the inter-quartile ranges are pre-calculated, i.e., the 5-number summary is already calculated, you can directly pass the values to render the boxplot.
1. Pivot data settings for boxplots
1.1. Boxplot auto sorting
Analytics+ automatically detects and assigns the lower/upper quartiles and the median and whisker values when this toggle is enabled. You can also manually select and assign the values in the settings pane by disabling this option.
2. Customization & formatting under canvas settings
2.1. Lower Quartile/ Upper Quartile/ Median/ Whisker Min/ Whisker Max
These dropdowns are enabled only when the Boxplot auto-sorting toggle is turned off. You can select the quartile, median, and whisker values from the dropdown menus.
You can disable the Median and Whisker toggles if you do not need to plot them.
2.2. Box format
Set the color and style (Solid, Outlined, Hatched) of the box.
2.3. Whisker format
You can set the style, thickness, and color of the whiskers.
2.4. Median format
Set the style, thickness, and color of the median line.
2.5. Stem line format
Set the style, thickness, and color of the stem lines that connect the boxes to the whiskers.
3. Conditional formatting for boxplots
When you select the Charts option from the Impacts on dropdown, you will be able to highlight the boxes based on the quartiles/median/whisker values.
Dynamic boxplot
Chart setup to build a dynamic boxplot:
Axis
Drag the dimension to plot on the axis (e.g.,Date: Year, Month).
Values parameter
Drag multiple measures to compare (e.g., Store 1, Store 2 - Store 10 (Sales data across 10 stores)).
Chart type
Select Boxplot from the Chart Type dropdown menu.
Analytics+ accepts pre-calculated quartiles or can calculate the inter-quartile ranges based on the input values provided. In this case, we have provided raw data values, and Analytics+ dynamically calculates the interquartile ranges for the boxplots.
Single measure boxplot
You can render a boxplot with a single measure by following the steps outlined:
STEP 1: Add the measure. Add the category dimension to the Small Multiples parameter instead of the Axis parameter.
STEP 2: In the pivot data window, enable the Split categories into measures option.
STEP 3: Select the Boxplot chart from the Chart Type dropdown.
Overlapped boxplot
Chart setup to build an overlapped boxplot:
Axis
Drag the dimension to plot on the axis (e.g., Date: Month).
Values parameter
Drag multiple measures to compare (e.g., Upper Quartile, Upper Quartile PY, Lower Quartile, Lower Quartile PY, Median, Whisker Max, Whisker Min).
Chart type
Select Boxplot from the Chart Type dropdown menu.
Overlapped boxplots can be used to compare previous year quartile values against current values. The upper and lower quartiles for the previous year should be assigned to the Box (Overlapped) data well in the pivot data window.
Combination/integrated boxplot
Chart setup to build an integrated boxplot:
Axis
Drag the dimension to plot on the axis (e.g., Date: Month).
Values parameter
Drag multiple measures to compare (e.g., Upper Quartile, Lower Quartile, Median, Whisker Max, Whisker Min, AC, PY, PL, FC).
Chart type
Select Boxplot from the Chart Type dropdown menu.
You can plot four additional measures in a boxplot by assigning them to the Actuals and Comparison data wells. The extra measures will appear as overlay line charts.
Displaying variances
You can plot the variances for the overlay measures by selecting Integrated Variance option from the Canvas Settings > Boxplot > Line Type dropdown.
Variance fill type
You can plot the variance fill as an area chart (shown above) or use lines.
Line variance
Use this option to determine the variance calculation.
Forecast boxplot
Chart setup to build a forecast boxplot:
Axis
Drag the dimension to plot on the axis (e.g., Date: Year, Quarter, Month).
Values parameter
Drag multiple measures to compare (e.g., Upper Quartile AC, Upper Quartile FC, Lower Quartile AC, Lower Quartile FC, Median AC, Median FC, Whisker Max AC, Whisker Max FC, Whisker Min AC, Whisker Min FC).
Chart type
Select Boxplot from the Chart Type dropdown menu.
You can also plot forecasts with boxplots by assigning the inter-quartile ranges to the Boxplot (Forecast) data well.
Note: To plot a visually appealing boxplot when axis hierarchies are involved, we recommend that the Axis > X-Axis > Category grouping option be disabled. The subtotal boxes will be hidden when this option is disabled.
Additional formatting options
Here are the other settings that help you refine your boxplot.
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