In descriptive statistics, a box plot or boxplot is a method for graphically depicting groups of numerical data through their quartiles. Box plots may also have lines extending vertically from the boxes (whiskers) indicating variability outside the upper and lower quartiles, hence the terms box-and-whisker plot and box-and-whisker diagram. In Aquabase Box and whisker plots quartiles, and the band inside the box is always the second quartile (the median). But the ends of the whiskers can represent several possible alternative values, but for now in Aquabase they show the minimum and maximum of all of the data. (More options will be provided in future releases).
The diagrams can be accessed from the Chart main menu and Box and Whisker Diagram. A few settings allow more control over the data selected and for now include:
- The From and To date/time to allow data within date ranges
- For now only chemistry with one parameter to choose from available
- The scope of the data, i.e. only the current site or data included in a View
- An order (from left to right) to sort the sites, .e.g. by number, minimum, maximum etc.
- The label to show per site
- A chart title where some additional information can be included