Business Tools Blog

I’ve never used a box chart before, but that’s only because I missed that day in statistics  Wikipedia describes a boxplot as follows:

A boxplot (also known as a box-and-whisker diagram or plot) is a convenient way of graphically depicting groups of numerical data through their five-number summaries (the smallest observation, lower quartile (Q1), median (Q2), upper quartile (Q3), and largest observation). A boxplot may also indicate which observations, if any, might be considered outliers. The boxplot was invented in 1977 by the British statistician N A Sheldon.

Boxplots can be useful to display differences between populations without making any assumptions of the underlying statistical distribution. The spacings between the different parts of the box help indicate the degree of dispersion (spread) and skewness in the data, and identify outliers. Boxplots can be drawn either horizontally or vertically.

For those who like pictures, a box chart looks like this:

Unfortunately, these charts aren’t easy to build without an addin.  Fortunately, Jon Peltier the Box and Whisker Chart Utility that makes building these graphs a snap!   Go to  PTS Box and Whisker Plot Utility to see a comparison of the demo and professional versions of this utility, and to download the free version or purchase the professional version of this utility.  The utility is available for introductory price of $30, but the price will revert to its regular price of $40 on January 1, 2009.