Boxplot Demo

Example boxplot code

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# Fixing random state for reproducibility
np.random.seed(19680801)

# fake up some data
spread = np.random.rand(50) * 100
center = np.ones(25) * 50
flier_high = np.random.rand(10) * 100 + 100
flier_low = np.random.rand(10) * -100
data = np.concatenate((spread, center, flier_high, flier_low))

fig1, ax1 = plt.subplots()
ax1.set_title('Basic Plot')
ax1.boxplot(data)

Out:

{'whiskers': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3daced4940>, <matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3daced6380>], 'caps': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3daced6f20>, <matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3daced60b0>], 'boxes': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3daced47f0>], 'medians': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3daced4550>], 'fliers': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad2aca00>], 'means': []}

fig2, ax2 = plt.subplots()
ax2.set_title('Notched boxes')
ax2.boxplot(data, notch=True)

Out:

{'whiskers': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad425ba0>, <matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad425960>], 'caps': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad424940>, <matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad426620>], 'boxes': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad8d62f0>], 'medians': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad427370>], 'fliers': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad426530>], 'means': []}

green_diamond = dict(markerfacecolor='g', marker='D')
fig3, ax3 = plt.subplots()
ax3.set_title('Changed Outlier Symbols')
ax3.boxplot(data, flierprops=green_diamond)

Out:

{'whiskers': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad5a3d90>, <matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad5a3d00>], 'caps': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad5a0c40>, <matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad5a3040>], 'boxes': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad5a0a00>], 'medians': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad5a0340>], 'fliers': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad5a33d0>], 'means': []}

fig4, ax4 = plt.subplots()
ax4.set_title('Hide Outlier Points')
ax4.boxplot(data, showfliers=False)

Out:

{'whiskers': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dacc786a0>, <matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dacc78280>], 'caps': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dacc78190>, <matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dadda5a80>], 'boxes': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dacc783d0>], 'medians': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dadda4460>], 'fliers': [], 'means': []}

red_square = dict(markerfacecolor='r', marker='s')
fig5, ax5 = plt.subplots()
ax5.set_title('Horizontal Boxes')
ax5.boxplot(data, vert=False, flierprops=red_square)

Out:

{'whiskers': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dac450130>, <matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dac4502b0>], 'caps': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dac453040>, <matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dac453700>], 'boxes': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dac451810>], 'medians': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dac4526b0>], 'fliers': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dac453c10>], 'means': []}

fig6, ax6 = plt.subplots()
ax6.set_title('Shorter Whisker Length')
ax6.boxplot(data, flierprops=red_square, vert=False, whis=0.75)

Out:

{'whiskers': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad51b340>, <matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad518430>], 'caps': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad51b910>, <matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad51aec0>], 'boxes': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad518fd0>], 'medians': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad51abc0>], 'fliers': [<matplotlib.lines.Line2D object at 0x7f3dad518bb0>], 'means': []}

Fake up some more data

spread = np.random.rand(50) * 100
center = np.ones(25) * 40
flier_high = np.random.rand(10) * 100 + 100
flier_low = np.random.rand(10) * -100
d2 = np.concatenate((spread, center, flier_high, flier_low))

Making a 2-D array only works if all the columns are the same length. If they are not, then use a list instead. This is actually more efficient because boxplot converts a 2-D array into a list of vectors internally anyway.

data = [data, d2, d2[::2]]
fig7, ax7 = plt.subplots()
ax7.set_title('Multiple Samples with Different sizes')
ax7.boxplot(data)

plt.show()

References

The use of the following functions, methods, classes and modules is shown in this example:

• matplotlib.axes.Axes.boxplot / matplotlib.pyplot.boxplot