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Impaired boxplot functionality - mean instead of median

Peter Ehlers 
I'd like to add two comments to Martin's sensible response.

1. I've seen several intro-stats textbooks that define a
boxplot to have whiskers to the extreme data values
and then define Tukey's boxplot as a "modified" boxplot.
I wish authors wouldn't do that.

2. I've also seen boxplots used for sample sizes as small
as -- are you ready for it? -- n = 2!! (Admittedly, only in
plots comparing several groups.) The help page for
stripchart() points out that stripcharts "are a good
alternative to boxplots when sample sizes are small".
My own rule-of-thumb: n > 20 for single boxplots, n > 12
for multiple boxplots.

Peter Ehlers
Martin Maechler wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

  
  


  


  


  
  

    

  

    
      
    
    
Thread (12 messages)

  

  

    
            
        Evgeniy Kachalin
        
        Impaired boxplot functionality - mean instead of median
      
      Dec 1
    
    
      
            
        Martin Maechler
        
        Impaired boxplot functionality - mean instead of median
      
      Dec 1
    
    
      
            
        Jean-Christophe BOUETTE
        
        Impaired boxplot functionality - mean instead of median
      
      Dec 1
    
    
      
            
        Evgeniy Kachalin
        
        Impaired boxplot functionality - mean instead of median
      
      Dec 1
    
    
      
            
        Peter Ehlers
        
        Impaired boxplot functionality - mean instead of median
      
      Dec 1
    
    
      
            
        Gabor Grothendieck
        
        Impaired boxplot functionality - mean instead of median
      
      Dec 1
    
    
      
            
        Marc Schwartz (via MN)
        
        Impaired boxplot functionality - mean instead of median
      
      Dec 1
    
    
      
            
        Mike Prager
        
        Impaired boxplot functionality - mean instead of median
      
      Dec 1
    
    
      
            
        Bert Gunter
        
        Impaired boxplot functionality - mean instead of median
      
      Dec 1
    
    
      
            
        Evgeniy Kachalin
        
        Impaired boxplot functionality - mean instead of median
      
      Dec 1
    
    
      
            
        Kjetil Halvorsen
        
        Impaired boxplot functionality - mean instead of median
      
      Dec 1
    
    
      
            
        Peter Ehlers
        
        Impaired boxplot functionality - mean instead of median
      
      Dec 1