Creating a Box and Whisker Plot Widget

The box and whisker plot, or box plot, is useful for representing the distribution, variability, and center of a data set along an axis.
Box plots are divided into four quartiles. The middle quartiles are represented by a box that contains 50% of the data and the median value. The upper and lower quartiles contain the maximum and minimum values and the remaining 50% of the data. These quartiles are represented by lines called whiskers.

You can adjust the maximum and minimum values when you create the box plot. By default, these values are within 1.5 times of the IQR (Interquartile Range). You can set them to the actual maximum and minimum values or to within one standard deviation of the mean of your data.

Box plots divide five descriptive statistics into four equal quartiles. You can view the statistics by hovering over the box plot.

To create a box and whisker plot:
  1. Click Dashboards tab, the Dashboards tab, and select a dashboard from the list.
  2. In the Widget library panel, click Create new widget button, the Create new widget button, to create a widget and open it in the Widget Designer.
    For more information, see Creating Widgets.
  3. In the Widget Designer, select Box and Whisker Plot from the list of widget types in the top-left corner.
  4. In the data panel on the left, add data to the widget:
    1. In the Category section, click Add button, the Add button, and select the field whose values you want to place on the x-axis.
      The x-axis in a box and whisker plot is used to represent numeric data.
    2. In the Value section, click Add button, the Add button, and select the field whose values you want to place on the y-axis.
  5. In the Design tab on the right, customize the appearance of the widget:
    1. Under Whisker values, specify how the whiskers are calculated and displayed.
      • IQR: The whisker values are calculated within 1.5 times the IQR, which represents the difference between the 1st and 3rd quartiles.
      • Extrema: The whisker values include the maximum and minimum values in the calculation.
      • Standard Deviation: The whisker values are calculated to one standard deviation above and below the mean of the data.
    2. Under Box, specify whether to display a full box or hollow box.
    3. Under Value Label, specify whether to show or hide labels with values and set their orientation.
    4. Under Legend, specify whether to show or hide the legend and set its position.
    5. Under Show Outliers, specify whether to show or hide outliers.
    6. Under X-Axis, specify whether to show or hide the x-axis and select the graphical elements that you want to include.
      These options are available:
      • Grid Lines: Displays grid lines on the x-axis.
      • Labels: Displays labels on the x-axis.
      • Title: Displays the x-axis title. You can use the default title or enter a different title in the text box.
    7. Under Y-Axis, specify whether to show or hide the y-axis and select the graphical elements that you want to include.
      These options are available:
      • Grid Lines: Displays grid lines on the y-axis.
      • Labels: Displays labels on the y-axis.
      • Title: Displays the y-axis title. You can use the default title or enter a different title in the text box.
      • Min, Max, Intervals: To change the default minimum, maximum, or interval values on the y-axis, enter new values in the text boxes. To restore any of the values to their default states, click Reset button, the Reset button.
    8. Under Auto Zoom, enable or disable the automatic zoom function.
      When a widget contains more data than can be displayed in the view, the Auto Zoom option resizes the chart automatically and, if necessary, displays a zoom bar. The zoom bar lets you scroll right and left or up and down and zoom in and out of different parts of the widget.
  6. Click Apply.
Parent topic: Creating Widgets