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> Boxplots are commonly used to show the distribution of a dataset, and are better than simply showing the mean or median value. However, here we can see as the
by wyldfire 10y ago
> Boxplots are commonly used to show the distribution of a dataset, and are better than simply showing the mean or median value. However, here we can see as the distribution of points changes, the box-plot remains the same.
Violin plots [1][2] are a great spin on boxplots that help show the distribution.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_plot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_plot
[2] http://seaborn.pydata.org/generated/seaborn.violinplot.html http://seaborn.pydata.org/generated/seaborn.violinplot.html
- SamBam 10y agoBut a violin plot still wouldn't distinguish between many of the plots in this set. All of the plots that don't have multiple vertical stacks -- so, all the horizontal lines, diagonal lines, circles, and scatter -- will have the same or almost the same violin plot. You could rotate the violin plot to show how the density changes on the other axis, for those graphs where that would be useful, but that requires looking at the data visually and making decisions, which is the whole point of the article.
- wyldfire 10y agoAgreed. But my response was specifically in response to the "More Examples" section that shows three examples for which the boxplots are ambiguous but violin plots would not be. In general, scatter plots can be very valuable but difficult to compare among trials. Violin plots help mitigate that, though you're correct that it comes at a cost.