Generating box plots with XLSTAT

Dataset for Descriptive Statistics (including Box plots and scattergrams) XLS35.5 KB

Tutorial video
Descriptive Statistics (including Box plots and scattergrams) is part of: Download Trial version More details See users' feedback

  • Pro Core statistical software

  • System configuration

    • Windows:
      • Versions: 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista/Win 7
      • Excel: 97 and later
      • Processor: 32 or 64 bits
      • Hard disk: 150 Mb
    • Mac OS X:
      • OS: OS X
      • Excel: X, 2004 and 2011
      • Hard disk: 150Mb.

Benefits

  • Easy and user-friendly
    Easy and user-friendly XLSTAT is flawlessly integrated with Microsoft Excel which is the most popular spreadsheet worldwide. This integration makes it one of the simplest available tools to work with as it utilizes the same philosophy as Microsoft Excel. The program is accessible in a dedicated XLSTAT tab. The analyses are grouped into functional menus. The dialog boxes are user-friendly and setting up an analysis is straightforward.
  • Data and results shared seamlessly
    Data and results shared seamlessly One of the greatest advantages of XLSTAT is the way you can share data and results seamlessly. As the results are stored in Microsoft Excel, anyone can access them. There is no need for the receiver to have an XLSTAT license or any additional viewer which makes your team-work easier and more affordable. In addition, results are easily integrable into other Microsoft Office software such as PowerPoint, so that you can create striking presentation in minutes.
  • Modular
    Modular XLSTAT is a modular product. XLSTAT-Pro is a core statistical module of XLSTAT which includes all the mainstream functionalities in statistics and multivariate analysis. More advanced features contained in add-on modules can be added for specific applications. This way you can adapt the software to your needs making the software more cost-efficient.
  • Didactic
    Didactic The results of XLSTAT are organized by analysis and are easy to navigate. Moreover useful information is provided along with the results to assist you in your interpretation.
  • Affordable
    Affordable XLSTAT is a complete and modular analytical solution that can suit any analytical business needs. It is very reasonably priced so that the return of your investment is almost immediate. Any XLSTAT license comes with top level support and assistance.
  • Accessible - Available in many languages
    Accessible - Available in many languages We have ensured XLSTAT is accessible to everyone by making the program available in many languages, including Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.
  • Automatable and customizable
    Automatable and customizable Most of the statistical functions available in XLSTAT can be called directly from the Visual Basic window of Microsoft Excel. They can be modified and integrated to more code to fit to the specificity of your domain. Adding tables and plots as well as modifying existing outputs becomes easy. Furthermore, XLSTAT includes some special tools on the dialog boxes to generate automatically the VBA code in order to reproduce your analysis using the VBA editor or to simply load pre-set settings. This effortless automation of routine analysis will be a huge time saver on your part.

Dataset for generating a box plot

An Excel sheet with both the data and the results can be downloaded by clicking here.

The data correspond to a sample of 150 irises for which 4 variables were measured. The flowers belong to 3 different species. Fisher used this dataset, now famous, when he developed his discriminant analysis theory. In this particular example, we decided to analyze the variable "Sepal length" of the flowers and check if there are "visually" significant differences between the three species.

Setting up the dialog box for the box plot

Once XLSTAT is open, select the XLSTAT / Describing data / Descriptive Statistics command, or click on the corresponding button of the Describing data toolbar (see below).

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Once you have clicked on the button, the Descriptive Statistics dialog box appears.

The data corresponding to the variable "Sepal length" were selected on the Excel sheet. Note that for a box plot, the data must be numerical data.

As the name of the variable was included in the selection, the Labels included option was also selected.

The "Species" data were selected as sub-sample descriptor to enable the comparison between the species.

The Sheet option was selected because we wanted the results displayed on a new sheet of the workbook.

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In the Options tab, the following options have been activated.

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The Normalize or Rescale options can be used when you want to compare several variables spread over different scales - there is no need to use these in this case as we are dealing with only one variable.

In the Charts tab the box plots option is checked. The Group plots option has been chosen so that the box plots are displayed on the same chart, and not separately.

The Minimum/Maximum and Outliers options have been checked so that the corresponding values are displayed on the box plots.

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Interpreting a box plot

The results are displayed on the new sheet named "Desc". They include a full set of descriptive statistics.

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Then, the box plots are displayed.

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It appears clearly that the Sepal length variable is different from for the three species. The blue rhombuses correspond to the minimum and maximum values.

Watch this video to see how to generate this boxplot.