>When and why would you want to summarise the data so coarsely and visualize it so un-intuitively? Sometimes less is more; Box plots are specifically good for

>When and why would you want to summarise the data so coarsely and visualize it so un-intuitively? Sometimes less is more; Box plots are specifically good for showing and comparing quartiles. If you want to compare several groups and care about gross differences, they are an excellent tool. They are an excellent to when you believe the data is normal and think the histogram is misleading. they are also great if you think the data isnt normal but care about quartiles. Any time you would be happy with a table of the 5 datapoints (min, max, median, 25th, and 75th percentiles), box plots a great tool for graphic comparison.